Composite adaptive control of a robotic joint for passive deployment applications

Abstract

A composite adaptive control scheme for the control of an actively constrained revolute joint with backlash cancellation is presented in this paper. The drive mechanism consists of two motor-driven worms coupled to a single worm wheel. The mathematical model and control strategies are reviewed. This is followed by the derivation of the composite adaptive controllers. Simulation and experimental results show that the composite adaptive control scheme gives an equivalent performance to a computed-torque algorithm without compromising the mechanism's ability to cancel backlash.