Robust sliding mode control for robot manipulators with analysis on trade‐off between reaching time and L∞ gain

This paper provides a new sliding mode control (SMC) approach, by which both the nominal and robust stability associated with a trajectory tracking problem for an uncertain robot manipulator are achieved. More precisely, the new control law consists of linear and nonlinear functions of tracking errors, in which the former is for the nominal stability and the latter is to ensure the robust stability of the resulting closed‐loop systems. The nonlinear function can be interpreted as an extended version of conventional SMC approach, and the reaching phase corresponding to a pregiven sliding surface is shown to be completed in a finite time; the tracking errors arrive at the sliding surface in a finite time and do not deviate from it after the arrival. In the sliding phase, the tracking errors are also ensured to converge to the origin. Finally, some simulation results are given to demonstrate both the theoretical validity and practical effectiveness of the proposed control approach.