Trajectory tracking control for a cable-driven space manipulator using time-delay estimation and nonsingular terminal sliding mode

Abstract

Trajectory tracking control is critical for cable-driven manipulators to achieve long-distance operation. However, the uncertainties and deformations caused by long-distance transmission cables make the existing trajectory tracking control methods for cable-driven space manipulators unable to meet the demand for high accuracy and strong robustness in practical engineering. In this paper, the trajectory tracking control for a new type of cable-driven large space manipulator is investigated. First, the kinematics and dynamics models of the cable-driven space manipulator are established by using the principle of virtual work. Then, a trajectory tracking control scheme is designed for the cable-driven space manipulator based on the time-delay estimation and the nonsingular terminal sliding mode control approach. The main advantage of the proposed control scheme is to improve the performance of the time-delay estimator by rationally introducing a tuning parameter, which improves the performance of the whole control system. The asymptotic stability of the resulting closed-loop system is proven by the Lyapunov stability theory. The simulation and experiment results show that the proposed control scheme can effectively overcome the influence of disturbance and achieve high-precision trajectory tracking control of the cable-driven space manipulator.