Velocity observer-based iterative learning control for robot manipulators

This article addresses the problem of designing an iterative learning control for trajectory tracking of rigid robot manipulators subject to external disturbances, and performing repetitive tasks, without using the velocity measurement. For solving this problem, a velocity observer having an iterative form is proposed to reconstruct the velocity signal in the control laws. Under assumptions that the disturbances are repetitive and the velocities are bounded, it has been shown that the whole control system (robot plus controller plus observer) is asymptotically stable and the observation error is globally asymptotically stable, over the whole finite time-interval when the iteration number tends to infinity. This proof is based upon the use of a Lyapunov-like positive definite sequence, which is shown to be monotonically decreasing under the proposed observer–controller schemes.