Performance-oriented robust control for rigid robot manipulators

This paper proposes a new approach for robust control design for linear systems with state-dependent nonlinear disturbances. This scheme has been applied to the rigid robot manipulator under computed torque control with parameter uncertainties. The controller consists of a linear and a nonlinear term. The linear term is selected to stabilize the system in the joint coordinates. The closed-loop system is damped in a nonlinear fashion resulting in improved transient performance over a pure linear controller, but with a noise sensitivity at the origin similar to that of the linear controller alone