Second-order SMC for tip trajectory tracking and tip deflection suppression of an AMM modelled nonlinear TLFM

This paper addresses the problem of tip trajectory tracking control along with the suppression of tip deflection of a planar two-link flexible manipulator (TLFM). Assumed modes method is used to obtain the dynamic model of the system. A robust chattering free finite time second-order SMC is designed to address this control problem. A conventional first order sliding surfaces are designed in terms of the tracking error first. Then, the second-order sliding surfaces are designed in terms of the first order SMC. The performance metrics considered are tracking error and time of the suppression of the tip deflection. The simulation results are compared with the existing SMC based techniques for tracking control of a TLFM. Better performances of the proposed controller are visibly reflected in the simulation results in MATLAB environment. The effectiveness of the proposed tip trajectory tracking strategy is validated using numerical simulation in MATLAB environment.