Adaptive Slotine – Li based backstepping control for series elastic actuator robot

Abstract

Series elastic actuator (SEA) has been widely seen in various fields, including the industrial and rehabilitation fields. This is due to the need for safety in human-robot interactions. However, a challenge that the SEA robotic arm faces is the robot's vibration due to the flexibility of the joints. This leads to a decrease in accuracy when controlling the robot's position. This article proposes a Li-Slotine based backstepping control algorithm to address this issue. At first, the Li-Slotine based controller is designed for the rigid joint robot. Next, the backstepping technique is used to design the controller for the SEA robot. The designed algorithm guarantees the system stability, and the vibration of the robot joints is suppressed. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed method.