Path Tracking Control of Robot Manipulators Utilizing Future Information of Desired Trajectory.

In this paper, the following two control methods are proposed for path tracking control of robot manipulators : (1) digital control method based on the principle of movement of a nonlinear mechanical system : (2) preview control method utilizing future information of the desired trajectory to improve the tracking control performance of method (1). The features are (a) systematically derived digital control law, (b) disturbance terms that may be unknown if they are functions of position and velocity. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed control methods is shown by simulation studies and experimental studies.