Sliding Mode Hybrid Impedance Control of Robot
Manipulators Interacting With Unknown
Environments Using VSMRC Method
Aghil Jafari and Jee-Hwan Ryu
School of Mechanical Engineering
Korea University of Technology and Education
Cheonan, Rep. of Korea, 303-708
Email: Jafari_ aghil@kut.ac.ir.j hryu@kut.ac.kr
Ali Talebi
Department of Electrical Engineering
Amirkabir University of technology
Tehran, Iran
Email: alit@aut.ac.ir
Abstract-In the present paper, the objective of hybrid
impedance control is specified and a robust hybrid impedance
control approach is proposed. Based on the concept of hybrid
control, the task space is decomposed into position and force
controlled subspaces. Impedance control is used in the position
controlled subspace. Desired inertia and damping are applied in
the force controlled subspace to meliorate the dynamic behavior
of robot manipulator. Robust controller using the variable struc­
ture model reaching control (VSMRC) is introduced that can
realize the objective impedance in the sliding mode in finite time.
In order to overcome the chattering ef1"ect due to sliding mode
approach, fuzzy logic methodology is employed in the control
system. In addition, the reaching transient response is undertaken
with prescribed quality. Simulating the control system for a 6DOF
PUMA560 robot confirms the validity and effectiveness of the
proposed control system.
Keywords-Hybrid Control, Sliding Mode Control, Impedance
Control, Robust Control.
I. IN TRODUC TION
During the last two decades, the control of interction
between robot and environment has motivated researchers'
ever-growing interests in robotics. This research area was
aroused by practical needs in medical treatments, automating
complex tasks and hazardous environments. In these cases,
robot-environment interaction should be accommodating with
commanded interaction. In order to accomplish such tasks
successfully, various control methods have been proposed in
the literature such as impedance control [1,2], hybrid control
[3,4], and complaint motion control [5,6].
Impedance control is defined as a fundamental approach to
control interaction so that the robot behaves as a mass-spring­
damper system whose parameters can be chosen arbitrarily.
The objective of this approach is to control the interaction
forces which may vary due to uncertainty in the location of
the contact point and environment's properties. Various control
Mehdi Rezaei and Reza Monfaredi
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Amirkabir University of technology
Tehran, Iran
Email: smrezaei@aut.ac.ir.reza_monfaredi@aut.ac.ir
Saeed Shiry Ghidary
Department of Computer Engineering
Amirkabir University of technology
Tehran, Iran
Email: shiry@aut.ac.ir
strategies have been suggested for different implementations,
most of which are based on linear model of the system
dynamics. Some robust hybrid control methods are presented
in [1,7,10], but the implementations of these controllers are
difficult in practical applications because there are acceleration
terms or derivative of force signals in their control laws. Also
robust implementations of hybrid impedance control by using
adaptive control are considered in [10-13]. As pointed out in
[14], an assumption is made that the system parameters' rate
of change is much lower than the rate of adjustment of the
controller gain. This limits the rate at which the manipulator
can maneuver. In [10,15,16], some adaptive control schemes
for a rigid robot manipulator were extended to achieve robust
impedance control against both uncertainties of parameters and
external disturbance. Nevertheless, the transient analysis of
adaptive system is still in its infancy, and few significant results
are available.
Variable structure control (VSC) as an alternative robust
control approach was first proposed and applied to motion con­
trol of robot manipulators by Young [17]. It has been indicated
that the VSC has several advantages, such as robustness of
stability, rapid response, insensitivity to the robot parameters'
variations, and external disturbances [18,19,20, 21]. In [22], a
variable structure model reaching control (VSMRC) strategy
was introduced. Model-reaching is realized by applying a
dynamic sliding mode in the VSC strategy frame. This concept
can be considered an extension of the dynamic compensation
in linear form of control strategy. A dynamic compensator is
applied in the sliding mode surface such that its dimension is
made equal to the dimension of system and then the desired
model can be resulted by sliding mode surface. Using VSC,
the expanded system is maintained in the sliding mode and
model reaching is realized.
In this paper, a novel robust hybrid impedance control of
robot manipulators using VSMRC method is presented in the
presence of both parametric uncertainties of robot manipulators as [19]
and external disturbances. Based on the proposed method­
ology, the commanded impedance is realized on the sliding
mode surface in finite time. The main advantage of proposed
[r:f, r�] rf = [ ¢l(X, t), , ¢m(x, t)]T
(4)
rp = [ 'l/Jl(X, t), , 'l/Jn m(x, t)]T
controller is requiring no measurement of force derivative or -
acceleration signal in the hybrid impedance controller design Differentiating (4) with respect to time yeilds

{
comparing to the latest research in the field and the controller is
r = Jrx + Vt = Jqq + Vt (5)
simple in the structure yet. In order to overcome the chattering
effects, fuzzy logic engine for reaching phase and fuzzy sliding where
mode control strategy is proposed. The robust behavior of r(x,t)
the system is the other advantage of this method. The next
Jr - o ox Jr = [/;1 J7.;, ]
priority of the proposed approach is that the performance Jrf E Rmxn Jrp E R (n -m)xn
r(x( q),t) (6)
of the controller is improved in the sense of removing the Jq - o oq Jq = JrJ
_ or(x,t)
chattering in comparison with the traditional sliding mode
Jq, Jr E Rn xn Vt - ----at
controller technique using boundary layer. Furthermore, the
reaching transient response is also guaranteed with prescribed Using the transformation (4) and (5) in (1), multiplying both
quality. Simulation results of a 6DOF PUMA560 robot are sides by J;;T, dynamic equation (1) can be presented in terms
presented to illustrate the performance of the proposed method. of the task space variable r as
Simultion sudy ad experimental results illustrate validty of the
suggsted contr scheme.
Mr(r, t)r+Cr(r, r, t)r+Gr(r, t)+F t+F(r, t) = Tr-Fr (7)
where
This paper is organized as the followings. Section (II)
addresses the robot manipulator model and its main properties. Mr(r, t) = J;;T M(q)J;;l
The specification of the objective impedance, the proposed Cr(r, r, t) =! TC(q, q)J;;l - J;;TM(q)J;;ljqJ;;l
i
controller are given in section (III). Simulation results are pre­ Gr(r, t) = Jq G(q)
sented in Section (IV), and explanatory results as conclusion
F(r, t) = J;;TF(t)
are given in Section (V).
F t =-Mr(r, t)Vt - Cr(r, r, t)Vt
Fr = J;TF
II. DYNAMIC EQUATIONS OF THE SYS TEM Tr = J;;TT
(8)
The dynamic equation of a general nonredundant rigid-link Let in represent the normal contact force control parameter.
manipulator having n degrees of freedom can be written as Suppose that the relationship between Fr and in is described
[20] as
(9)
M(q)ij + C(q, q)q + G(q) + JT(q)F + F(t) = T (1)
where L depends on the environment and is the function of un­
where q = q(t) is the (nx1) vector of the robot generalized known friction coefficient. It is assumed that the nominal value
coordinates, T is the (nxl) vector of the input control, M (q)
of M(q), C(q, q), G(q) and L are M (q), C(q, q), G(q), Land
is the (nxn) inertia matrix of the manipulator, C(q, q)q is
the modeling errors are bounded as follows:
the (nx1) Coriolis a�d centrifugal vector, G(q) is the (nx1)
gravitational vector, F is the external disturbance and F is the I6.M(q) 1 :s; OM(q) 6.M(q) = M(q) - i;f(q)
(nx1) interaction forces/moments exerted by the manipulator I6.C(q, q)1 :s; oc(q, q) 6.C(q, q) = C(q, q) - C(q, q)
on the environment, and J(q) is the manipulator Jacobian
I6.G(q)1 :s; Oc(q) 6.G(q) = G(q) - G (q)
matrix relating joint space velocity to task space velocity,
which is assumed to be non-singular in finite work space n
I6.L I :s; OL 6.L = L - L
I 1
F(t) :s; Op(t)
(lO)
8x(q)
J(q) = (2) where the elements of OM(q), oc(q, q), oc(q), OL and Op(t) are
8q the known boundary values of elements of 6.M(q), 6.C(q, q),
x is the (nxl) position and orientation vector of the end­ 6.G(q) and 6.L. The modeling errors are accounted for para­
effector in the world space. Equation (1) has the following metric uncertainties of the robot manipulator and terms that are
properties Suppose that the environment in undeformation is neglected due to computation efficiency. from (8), the nominal
described by a set of m time-varying hypersurfaces values of Mr(r, t), Cr(r, r, t) and Gr(r, t) are obtained as:

<I>(x, t) = [ ¢l(X, t), , ¢m(x, t)]T m :s; n (3)

which are mutually independent for any time (t). <I>e =

[ ¢el, , ¢em]T represents the equilibrium position of

the environment which is considered to be constant but with
unknown elements. Suppose that there exists a set of (n- m)
scalar functions { 'l/Jl(X, t), , 'l/Jn m(x, t) } such that
-
{ ¢ i(x, t), i = 1, ..., m;'l/Jj(x, t), j = 1, ..., n- m} are mutu­
ally independent for any time (t). The task space can be defined
 III. CON TROLLER DESIGN B. SLIDING MODE HYBRID IMPEDANCE CONTROLLER

{
A. OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSED CONTROL METHOD Based on objective of hybrid impedance control (l7) the
following general objective impedance form, is defined:

Mdi:h + CdeI + Kde =-ef

The desired equation along the force controlled subspace e = S(r(t) - rd(t))
is defined as follow:
(18)
eI = r(t) - Srd(t)
ef = Fr - (I - S)Fd
(12)
The robust hybrid impedance control can be expressed as
where Md and Cd are the desired inertia and damping,
designing a controller such that the objective impedance (18)
Frd is the desired force. In passive linear environments, it
is realized under the modeling errors. First, a dynamic com­
is convenient to adopt the relationship between forces and
pensator is introduced as:
motion around the contact point in the form (linear elastic
environment) i = Az + Kpze - F2-IF e + KvzeI + Kfzef (19)
I
(13)
in which z is the n-dimensional state vector of dynamic
where Me, Ce and Ke are the inertial, damping and stiffness compensator, A is any negative semi-definite constant matrix,
matrices of the environment, respectively. In view of (16), and Kpz, Kvz, Kfz are calculated to shape the sliding mode
equation (15) can be written in the form surface so that the objective impedance is achieved, F is an
I
arbitrary diagonal constant matrix and F2 is a non-singular di­
(Md + Me)r + (Cd + Ce)r + Ker = Fd (14)
agonal constant matrix. The compensator is applied in forming
from equation (14) it can be clearly seen that we can adjust the switching function as:
the response by choosing the desired inertia and damping ,
(20)
i.e. Md and Cd , respectively. The desired equation (12) has
another desirable property. When the end-effector looses the Based on the sliding surface described above, the resulting
contact, the end-effector should move along the desired force sliding mode {ss = 0, Ss = O} can be described as:
with a limited velocity which is determined by the desired
inertia Md , desired damping Cd and the desired force Fd . For {z = -F2-I(eI + F e)
I (21)
instance, when the end-effector is approaching the environment i =-F2-I(ih + F e)
I
along force controlled subspace, the interaction force is F= Substituteing (21 ) into the slidig mode equation (19) and
O. Applying a constant desired force Fd, the equation (12) eliminate z
becomes:
(15) eI + (-F2AF2-I + F2Kvz)eI
(22)
+ (F2Kpz - F AF2-IF )e =-F2Kfzef
Assuming X(O) = 0, Md and Cd can be chosen as positive I
By comparing (22) with (18), it would be clear that Kpz, Kvz,

{
definite diagonal matrices, the i-th element of the velocity
vector r(t) is obtained solving the equation (15). Kfz must be chosen as:
Kvz = F2-I(MiICd + F2AF2-1 )
Kpz = F2-I(MilKd + F2AF2-1 Fd
(16)
(23 )

Since Mdi and Cdi are positive definite, according to (16), it

Kfz = F2-IMiIKf
could be shown that Iri(t) 1 � I �ddt. i: I and lim ri(t) = �di • Consequently, the sliding mode equation (20) will be re­
t---too dt alized with the general objective impedance equation (18).
This guarantees that when the arm approaches an environment
The control torque must be determined so that the system
along the force-controlled subspace, the velocity of the ma­
reaches the sliding surface in the finite time with prescribed
nipulator is properly limited to guarantee a bounded collision
reaching transient response. In order to set to the sliding mode,
force. On the other hand the distance between the end-effector
the close loop system must satisfy the reaching condition
and the environment is totally unknown. Following the above
described idea, we define the objective of hybrid impedance
{ss = 0, Ss = O}, then the equivalent control law is given
by
control as:
Treq = Mr(r, t)req + Cr(r, r, t)req + Gr(r, t)
Md(r-Srd)+Cd(r-Srd)+KdS(r-rd)-(I-S)Fd =-Fr (24 )
(17) + Lin + F t + F(r, t) - Dss
Where Kd is the desired stiffness, rd is the desired robot where
motion and S is the (n x n) selection matrix and diagonal with (25)
Is and Os on the diagonal elements. Diagonal elements of the
selection matrix have the value 0 if the i-th degree of freedom and D is a positive definite matrix. It is easy to show that:
(DOF) with respect to the task-frame is force-controlled, and
(26 )
the value 1, in the case of position-controlled. Usually, Md,
Cd, Kd are chosen as diagonal matrices to obtain decoupled In practical applications, the system dynamics and external
response. disturbance are unknown, hence the equivalent control input
is modified as:

Treq = M r(r, t)req+Cr(r, r, t)req+Gr(r, t)+Lfn +Ft- Dss Tfs FSMHIC(ss, 8s) [TfS(1)' Tfs(2)"'"Tfs(n)(
= =
(27)
For the stability analysis, a Lyapunov function is defined as:
= [FSMHIC(sS(l), 8s(1»),"" FSMHIC(ss (n), 8s(n»)]T
1
V = 2"ssT Mr(r, t)ss (28)
Tdf [Tdf(1),Tdf(2),...,Tdf(n)(
=

[(oT hTfs (1), , ( OT )nTfs (n)V

= ...

The time derivative of V can be expressed as:

The membership functions of input linguistic for each set of

V. = Ss
T .
Mrss
1
+ 2"ssT Mrss
.
(29)
variables Ss(i) and8s(i) are chosen as triangular functions,
and the membership functions of the output linguistic variable

Hence, if derivative of V is negative for all Ss i- 0, then

Tfs(i) 1, , i= ... , n, Tfs(i)
are presented in Fig. 1. is as:

the so-called reaching condition is realized. At this point, the

controller must be designed to guarantee the hitting of states
Tfs(i) FSMHIC(ss(i» 8s(i»)
= (33)

on the sliding surface Ss = O. The following sliding mode

controller could be applied to the system:
NS ZE PS
(30)

where

) l" ' " (Td ) n ]

Td(Td)i [(Td(OT)isgn(SSi) T
=

1, i= ... , n
�
�
=
� 0.6
oT OMr (r, t) li'eq I + oCr (r, r, t) Ireq l + OGr (r, t)+
=
E
op(r, t) + OFt + oL lfn l ."
sgn(ss ) = [sgn(sSl),' ", sgn(ssn)V E >0
{I, forss i >0
sgn(SSi) = 0, forss i = 0
- 1, forss i < 0
(31)
Using the above mentioned controller and closed loop system
dynamics, the derivative of the Lyapunov function becomes as
following
(32)
Fig. 1. Membership function of input variables Tf
Using Barbalat's lemma [24], the states of the system ap­
8

proache to the hyper plane and the error vector asymptotically
converges to zero while the system states are on
The process is decomposed into seven fuzzy partitlOnS
Ss = O. expressed as "positive big" (PB),"positive medium" (PM),
"positive small" (PS), "zero" (ZE), "negative small" (NS),
"negative medium" (NM) and "negative big" (NB). The fuzzy
rule table is designed as in Table 1.

C. CHATTERING-FREE FUZZY SLIDING MODE HYBRID D. ROBUST STABILITY AND CONVERGENCE ANALYSIS
IMPEDANCE CONTROLLER
Based on the Iyaponov function (28), the following can be
obtained
In this section, in order to overcome the chattering prob­
lems, a fuzzy inference engine for reaching phase and fuzzy
�k� IISs 1 2 :s; V :s; �k: IISs 1 2 (34)

sliding mode control strategy is proposed.

Theorem3.1. For the robot manipulator (7) with the modeling TABLE I. RULE BASE OF FUZZY LOGIC
errors (12), the system achieves the objective impedance (18)
if the following Fuzzy sliding mode hybrid impedance control
is applied: Ss i ()
Uts (i)
PB PM PS ZE NS NM NB
8s(i) PB
PM
NB
NB
NB
NB
NB
NB
ZE ZE ZE ZE
K>O ZE ZE ZE PS
PS NB NB NM ZE ZE PS PM
where Tfs is the output of the Fuzzy Sliding Mode Hybrid
Impedance Control (FSMHIC), and it is determined by the
ZE
NS
NB
NM
NM
NS
NS
ZE
ZE
ZE
PS
PM
PM
PB
PB
PB
normalized 8s and Ss. The fuzzy control rules can be repre­
sented as the mapping of the input linguistic variables 8s and
NM NS ZE ZE ZE PB PB PB
NB ZE ZE ZE ZE PB PB PB
Ss to the output linguistic variable Tfs Tdf
and as follows:
Now, differentiating V with respect to time yields in:
1 .
rS r + ssTM rSs = SsTMr(r-req
V = SsTM'
"2
.. .. )+ SsTCr(1',1', t) �; 09

0.8
(3
0.7
Where property 2.4 has been used to eliminate the term
0. 6
1/2ss TM rss owing to the time dependency of inertia matrix.
NO.5
Substituting control torque theorem 3.1 into (35) and noticing
0.4
(34) , yields in:
0.3

V =-sI Dss + EsI Tjs + KSI Tdj-sI [�Mr(r, t)i'eq+ 0. 2

�Cr(r, r, t)req + �Gr(r, t) + �Ft + F(r, t) + �Lfn 0.1

n
� -sI Dss + EsI Tjs � -sI Dss -E ISs(i)1
iL
=1
2
:s; -Amin( D) llss I1 - E Ilss ll :s; -C3 V - C4VV
-0.6 -0.4
(36) -1 -DB

{ _ 2.\min(D)
C3 - k"x
(37)
C4= E � Fig. 2. 3D view of PUMA560

For the initial conditions:

1 006 ,-----,----,---,
Vo = ssT(O)Mr(r, O)ss(O) (38)
"2 0.04

From (36), it can be concluded that: 0.02

VV :s; (Fa + )exp-¥ t _

C4 C4
(39)
C3 C3
The upper limit tmax of the reaching time tr is specified by
f -0.02

a:
setting the right hand side of (39) equal to zero, then it leads '0 -0.04
,.
to
O IE
- .

(40)
-D.[E

.01
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS
In this section the main features of the proposed controller
XofPlane(m)
is illustrated through simulation results on the well-known
6DOF robotic arm PVMA-560, which is a classical 6R serial
manipulator with spherical wrist. The results shown have been Fig. 3. Tracking contour of the manipulator
obtained with the Robotics Toolbox (Release 7.1) for MAT­
LAB developed by Corke [25], which includes the kinematic
model of the PUMA-560 robot. 12 ,-----,-----,

The robot is assumed to be in contact with a surface S

10 H
which is rotated around the Y-axis as shown in Fig. 2. The
surface S has unknown stiffness ke with unknown friction
coefficient p, = 0.2. The initial condition is assumed to
T
be q(O) = [ 0.22 2.1 2.5 0 2.43 - 0.28] (rad) and
\-----'----'---!

q(O) = [ 0 0 0 0 0 O]T (rad), and an uncertainty -

supposed due to the unmodeled dynamics - is entered into
the system and affects the components of inertia matrix and
gravity matrix.
We consider a typical robot task in which the robot end­
effector realizes the desired circle motion rd on the surface
and the required contact force Fd along the surface normal
vector. The results of simulation are shown in Fig. 3-5. These lime(s)

results illustrate that the new proposed approach, eliminates

chattering of control signals and improves tracking error as
Fig. 4. Time response of normal force
well.
The simulation results for the motion and contact force
are shown in Figs. 3-4, which demonstrate the ability of the about t = 0.2 9s . The proposed control system with respect
proposed VSMRC hybrid controller. A collision happens at to position and contact force ensures the stable desired circle
 [3] c.c. CHEAH, S. KAWAMURA, S. ARIMOTO, Stability of hybrid position

Iv\t\J1 :1 U,. , I
and force contro for robotic manipulator with kinematics and dynamics
uncertainties, Int. J. ELSEVIER, Automatica, Volume 39, Issue 5, Pages
847-855, May 2003.

[4] T.K. TANEV, Kinematics of a hybrid (parallel-serial) robot manipulator,

: :
o 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 lJ 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 !I
Mechanism and Machine Theory, Volume 35, Issue 9, Pages 1183-1196,

H==m=1
: : � " tIErTI1
Time(s) TllIr e(s)
1 September 2000.

[5] Y. KARAYIANNIDIS, G. ROVITHAKIS, Z. DOULGERI, Force/position

: :
6
�" .2
:
�
:
." ." ., ." ." ., .
: : : :
. ,.. , .. : .. , .. " .:, .".".i,." .. , , ;
: : ,
: . , .. ,
. ..,..,. " ." ." . , ." ." ." .
�6 ·1 " " -"-::"" " '- :: " "---- :; '-- " " ' : " " "" :: " " " ' :: - " '---' :- " - " - ' : " " '-" : tracking for a robotic manipulator in compliant contact with a surface
using neuro-adaptive control, Int. J. ELSEVIER, Automatica, Volume 43,
$, �
o
�
2 , 6 8 10 12 16 18 II �
$2
0 2 , 6 8 10 12 II 16 18 �
Issue 7, Pages 1281-1288, July 2007.

lime(s) Time(s) [6] Z. Lt, W. CHENA, J. Luo, Adaptive compliant force-motion control

I:·t · ·. · · · · .· · • • • ··.· · .· · 1·
of coordinated non-holonomic mobile manipulators interacting with
unknown non-rigid environments, Int. J. ELSEVIER, Neurocomputing,
�
, .. . . Volume 71, Issues 7-9, Pages 1330-1344, March 2008.
[2 -
[7] G.J. LIU, A . A . GOLDENBERG, Robust Hybrid Impedance Control of
�O "'- ,
. . . . . .• . .. .. •. ........•. .......
, . . .

Robot Manipulators, IEEE Int Con! RoboticsandAutomation, Sacra­

o 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 JJ o 2 4 6 B 10 12 U 16 18 JJ
lime(s) Trne(s) mento,Califomia,1991.

[8] A. DUTTA, G. OBINATA, Impedance control of a robotic gripper for

cooperation with humans, Control Engineering Practice, Volume 10,
Fig. 5. Control signals applied to 6 joints Issue 4, Pages 379-389, April 2002.

[9] J. KARDOS, Contact force control in the robot end-point, Procedia

Engineering, Volume 2, Issue 1, Pages 563-572, April 2010.
motion r d of the end-effector on the surface and the desired [10] C. CHIU, K. LIAN, T. W u, Robust adaptive motion/force tracking
contact force Fd along the surface normal vector. Besides, the control design for uncertain constrained robot manipulators, Int. J.
control law ensures both the stability of the desired quality of ELSEVIER, Automatica, vo140, 2111-2119,2004.
dynamic behavior in all directions of motion. In Fig. 5, we have [11] S. ALAVANDAR, M.J. NIGAM, New hybrid neuro-fuzzy algorithms for
robot control with uncertainties-Comparative study, ISA Transactions,
shown control signals of joints for the proposed method, the
Volume 48, Issue 4, October 2009, Pages 497-502 .
results indicate elimination of chattering in proposed method.
[12] Z. LI, S.S. GE, M. ADAMS, W.S. WlJESOMA, Robust adaptive control
Due to lack of the space and because of 6 DOF of PUMA
of uncertain force/motion constrained nonholonomic mobile manipula­
560 cause to a lot of figures, we could not show all of the tors , Int. J. ELSEVIER, Automatica, Volume 44, Issue 3, Pages 776-784,
necessary simulations. March 2008.

[13] Z. Lt, W. CHEN, J. Luo, Adaptive compliant force-motion control

V. CONCLUSIONS of coordinated non-holonomic mobile manipulators interacting with
unknown non-rigid environments, Int. J. ELSEVIER, Neurocomputing,
A fuzzy sliding mode hybrid impedance control method Volume 71, Issues 7-9, Pages 1330-1344, March 2008.
was proposed and implemented. The objectives of hybrid [14] R. R. KELLY, Unified approach to adaptive control of robotic manipu­
impedance control were defined to include a desired inertia lators, 29th IEEE Con! Decision and Control, 1988.
and damping along the force-controlled subspace to improve [15] R. C OLBAUGH, H. SERAJI, AND K. GLASS, Adaptive impedance con­
trol of redundant manipulators, 31th IEEE Con! Decision and Control,
the force-controlled response. Furthermore, introducing the
pp. 2261-2266, 1990.
desired inertia and damping makes the control method suitable
[16] J. J. E. SLOTINE AND W. Lt, Adaptive strategies in constrained
to control a robot in the approaching and contact phases
manipulators, IEEE Int. Conf. Robotics Automation, 1987.
without using switching contoller. The objective impedance
[17] K. K. D. Y OUNG, Controller design for a manipulator using the theory
is achieved in the sliding mode in finite time and is robust of variable structure systems, IEEE Trans. Sysr. Man Cyber., vol. SMC-8,
against both parametric uncertainties and external disturbances. pp. 101-109, 1978.
The reaching transient can also be guaranteed with prescribed [18] S.S. GE, T. H. LEE, G. ZHU, F. HONG, Variable structure control of a
quality. Simulation results verify the performance of the pro­ distributed-parameter flexible beam, J. Robot. Syst., Vol, 18, pp. 17-20,
posed controller. The simulations also show the performance 2001.

of the controller when the robot approaches and contacts a stiff [19] B. YAO, S. P. CHAN, AND D. WANG, A unified approach to vari­
able structure control of robot manipulators, American Control Conf.
environment.
(Chicago), pp. 1482-1486, 1992.
[20] S.P.CHAO, B. YAO,W.B. GAO, Robust impedance control of robot ma­
ACKNOWLEDGMENT nipulator, International Journal of Robotics and Automation, Vol, 6, No.
4, 1991.
This work was supported partly by the R&D program of
[21] V. I. UTKIN, Discontinuous control systems state of art in theory and
the Korea Ministry of Knowledge and Economy (MKE) and
application, 10th IFAC World Congress (Munich), pp. 2744,1987.
the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT).
[22] S. P. CHAN, W. B. GAO, Variable structure model reaching control
(Project: 3D perception and Robot Navigation Technology for strategy for robot manipulators, IEEE Inf. Conf. Robotics and Automation
Unstructured Environment, M002300090) , 1989.

[23] H. YAU, C. CHEN , Chattering-free fuzzy sliding-mode control strategy

REFERENCES for uncertain chaotic systems, Int.l.ELSEVIER, Chaos, Solitons and
F ractals ,vo130 709-718, 2006.
[1] M. V UKOBRATOVIC, D. SURDILOVIC, Dynamics and robust control of
[24] J.J.E. SLOTlNE, W. LI, Applied nonlinear control, Englewood Cliffs,
robot-environment interaction, Singapore, World Scientific, 2009, ch.3.
NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1991.
[2] H. JIANBIN, X. ZONG WU, J. MINGHE, J. ZAINAN, L. HONG, Adaptive
[25] P. CORKE, A robotics toolbox for matlab, IEEE Robotics and Automa­
impedance-controlled manipulator based on collision detection,
Chinese
tion Magazine 3, 1996.
Journal of Aeronautics, Volume 22, Issue I, Pages 105-112, February
2009.