On sliding mode control of the manual gas metal arc welding process

This paper presents a novel application of sliding control in the manual gas metal arc welding process against uncertainties. The uncertainties are due to the contact tip variation to the workpiece, measurements of the arc length and electrical current, un-modeled dynamics, parametric errors and external disturbances. The set point of arc length is performed successfully by the robust control system which includes the feedback linearization and sliding mode control. This work improves the previous work in this field of research by overcoming uncertainties. The simulation results are shown to consider a good performance of control system.