Path tracking of robot manipulator with prescribed sliding mode

A design procedure is developed for obtaining continuous path tracking of a robot manipulator with variable structure controller. The planned trajectory is utilized to deduce the switching surfaces so that the resulting sliding mode can be prescribed according to the desired path. An algorithm is proposed to specify the rate of approach to the switching surfaces such that the problem of chattering can be reduced. A computer simulation study for the path-tracking application of a two-link manipulator confirmed the existence of the prescribed sliding mode