Tansig type NLESO-based integral terminal sliding mode control for modular robot manipulators with uncertain disturbance: Theory and experimental verification

To overcome the mutual constraints between the system chattering and the arrival time in conventional sliding mode control in this paper, a tangent excitation function (tansig) type nonlinear extended state observer (NLESO)-based integral terminal sliding mode control is proposed to solve the trajectory tracking control task of the modular robot manipulators (MRMs) possessing strong coupling and complex time-varying properties. Through the joint torque feedback technology, the MRM system dynamic model is formulated; on this basis, the proposed NLESO based on tansig is utilized to estimate and compensate the system uncertain information, which are consisted of the friction, interconnected dynamic coupling, and external disturbance. The proposed NLESO can simplify the traditional extended state observer design parameters for theoretical analysis and practical application. The proposed tansig-type NLESO-based integral terminal sliding mode control integrated adaptive term exponential reaching law for MRMs is designed to diminish the arrival time when the system state converges to the equilibrium point. The presented algorithm improves the robotic system antidisturbance ability. Furthermore, the Lyapunov theory is utilized to verify stability of the proposed NLESO and closed-loop robotic system. Finally, the availability of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated by experiments.