A Robustly Stable Multiestimation-Based Adaptive Control Scheme for Robotic Manipulators

A multiestimation-based robust adaptive controller is designed for robotic manipulators. The control scheme is composed of a set of estimation algorithms running in parallel along with a supervisory index proposed with the aim of evaluating the identification performance of each one. Then, a higher-order level supervision algorithm decides in real time the estimator that will parametrize the adaptive controller at each time instant according to the values of the above supervisory indexes. There exists a minimum residence time between switches in such a way that the closed-loop system stability is guaranteed. It is verified through simulations that multiestimation-based schemes can improve the transient response of adaptive systems as well as the closed-loop behavior when a sudden change in the parameters or in the reference input occurs by appropriate switching between the various estimation schemes running in parallel. The closed-loop system is proved to be robustly stable under the influence of uncertainties due to a poor modeling of the robotic manipulator. Finally, the usefulness of the proposed scheme is highlighted by some simulation examples.