Variable structure control system design guaranteeing continuity of control signal

In this paper, a sliding mode control scheme that guarantees the smoothness of the control signal and the exponential error convergence is proposed for robot manipulators. The proposed method inserts a low pass filter (LPF) in front of the plant, and the virtual controller is designed for the virtual plant - the combination of the LPF and the robot manipulator. The virtual control signal contains high frequency components because of a switching function. The real control signal, however, always shows a smooth curve since it is an output of the LPF. In addition to the smoothness of the control signal is always assured, the overall system is in the sliding mode at all times, that is, its performance is always invariant under the existence of parameter uncertainties and external disturbances. The closed-loop system is shown to be globally exponentially stable.