Comparative performance of adaptive and robust control for robot arms

The adaptive control and the robust control have been considered as the most influential methods for robotic motion control. The purpose of this paper is to compare control performance between these two strategies in unconstrained motion control of robot manipulator. In order to compare control performance properly, intensive experiments are required and only then can conclusions be drawn on the relative merit and demerit of the controllers. Firstly, the control algorithms for unconstrained motion control are summarized. In adaptive control, the controllers that have been proposed so far are classified according to the signals used for the computed control input. It enables rather easier to compare controller is examined to demonstrate control performance of robust controllers. Finally, the above two approaches, the adaptive and the robust are compared from the view-point of robustness to plant uncertainty, which is one of the most demanding properties in robot motion control.