A robust multiestimation based stable adaptive control scheme for a tandem of master-slave robotic manipulators with force reflection

The problem of controlling a tandem of robotic manipulators composing a teleoperation system with force reflection is addressed in this paper. The final objective of the manuscript is to design a robust control law capable of improving the tracking of each robot to its corresponding reference model in comparison to existing controllers when the slave is interacting with an obstacle while guaranteeing closed-loop stability. In this way, a multiestimation-based adaptive controller is proposed. Thus, the control scheme for each robot is composed of a set of estimation algorithms running in parallel along with a supervisory index proposed with the aim of evaluating the identification performance of each one. Hence, the master robot is able to follow more accurately the constrained motion defined by the slave when interacting with an obstacle than when a single estimation based controller is used. Finally, some simulation examples showing the working of the multiestimation scheme complete the paper