Design method for manipulator control based on disturbance observer

Recent requirements for fast and accurate motion in industrial robot manipulators demand more advanced control techniques. For these requirements, many manipulator control methods have been developed. One of them is a manipulator control based on the disturbance observer. The disturbance observer estimates the disturbance torque(force) using a nominal model and compensates for the parameter variations between the real manipulator and the nominal model. Because of high performance, a simple algorithm, and its usefulness for real time control, the disturbance observer has recently been employed for manipulator control. However, how stably the disturbance observer suppresses parameter variation in the total manipulator control system has not been examined. This paper analyzes a manipulator control based on the disturbance observer. From this analysis, this paper also proposes one design method of the manipulator control based on the disturbance observer. Finally, we present experimental results from an implementation of the proposed method.