An adaptive nonlinear output feedback controller for robot manipulators

An adaptive controller is proposed for the tracking control of robotic manipulators that does not require the measurement of joint velocities. An observer is used to generate an estimate of the joint velocities and an observer-based identifier is used to update the parameter vector estimate. The controller is proven to guarantee uniform ultimate boundedness of the tracking error. Simulation results are given to show the effectiveness of the control algorithm and to illustrate the theoretical properties of the proposed method.