State Feedback Switching Control of an Underactuated Planar Manipulator with Partial Feedback Linearization

In this paper, position control problem of a two-degree-of-freedom underactuated manipulator is considered and a state feedback control structure with energy-based switching is proposed. The mechanism has two revolute joints that move the two links on horizontal plane. Difficulties in system control arise with the fact that the manipulator has less control input signals than system degrees of freedom, and has complex nonholonomic structure. Furthermore, in horizontal operational conditions, position control of the system is a challenging work since free joint is not affected by the gravity. The system has only one actuator at the shoulder joint and the elbow joint is completely free. Therefore, the system cannot be stabilized around any equilibrium point by a linear state feedback control method. In this study, a control system that utilizes two stabilizing state feedback controllers and an energy-based supervisory switching mechanism is proposed. Stabilizing controllers are obtained utilizing the partial feedback linearization method. Proposed control is tested by computer simulations. First the open-loop plant dynamic model is obtained by Euler-Lagrange formulation and state-space modeling approach. Then, a simulation model of the system in closed loop with proposed control scheme is developed using the dynamic model and control law. Simulation tests are performed with respect to three different initial conditions. Performance of the control system is observed and revealed via simulations.