Fault-Tolerant Control of Multi-Joint Robot Based on Fractional-Order Sliding Mode

Abstract

In this paper, the problem of fault-tolerant control of actuators for multi-joint robots is studied. Aiming at the jitter problem in the design of fault-tolerant control law for conventional sliding mode controllers (SMC), a controller design method based on fractional-order sliding mode (FSMC) theory is proposed. At first, the mathematical model of the multi-joint robot is established and the fractional-order sliding mode surface is constructed according to the mathematical model. Then, the robust control law is designed based on the Lyapunov function. Finally, the experiments are carried out. Compared with the conventional sliding mode control, the experimental results show that the multi-joint robot is more stable under the control of fractional-order sliding mode, and it can achieve almost no jitter while tracking the reference. The steady-state error for joint1 and joint2 could reach 0.073 radians under the control of SMC, while it is 0.015 radians under the control of FSMC. The steady-state error data indicate that the fluctuation amplitude under FSMC is five times smaller than SMC for the end part of the multi-joint robot under actuator gain faults. The regulation time for joint1 and joint2 is about 0.11 s under the control of SMC, and it is around 0.04 s for FSMC. The regulation time is reduced to one of three or four. These data show the effectiveness of the FSMC proposed in this paper.