Precise tip-positioning control of a single-link flexible arm using a fractional-order sliding mode controller

This article presents an efficient scheme based on fractional order sliding mode control approach for precision tip position control of a single link flexible robot arm. The proposed control strategy is robust against the system parameters variations such as payload and viscous friction variations in the presence of the sinusoidal disturbance and the unknown Coulomb friction disturbances. The aim of controller design is reduction of the deviation caused by the link flexibility and then the precision tip positioning control of the single-link flexible arm. In this regard, sliding mode control strategy is performed in two stages. In the first stage, the difference between the motor angle (load angle) and the tip angle of the flexible link is reduced by applying the proposed fractional order sliding mode controller and then, in the second step, the precision tracking of the tip position of the link is done by adding another sliding mode control scheme. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed control scheme is demonstrated via numerical simulation results.