Robust model following control with L2-gain performance for robot manipulators

In this paper, we propose a robust model following control scheme for a rigid body robot manipulator. A state feedback controller is designed based on robust H-infinity control synthesis so as to guarantee robust stability and robust performance of descriptor form model following error equation in the presence of uncertain nonlinear perturbations. The proposed control scheme is applied to a two-link direct drive manipulator. Experiments are carried out to evaluate tracking performance of the manipulator, and the results show effectiveness and robustness of the proposed controller.