Robustness Analysis of a Simple and Augmented Proportional Plus Derivative Controller in Trajectory Following Robots Using the Floquet Theory

This paper deals with the issue of robustness in control of robots using the proportional plus derivative (PD) controller and the augmented PD controller. In the literature, a variety of PD and model-based controllers for multilink serial manipulator have been claimed to be asymptotically stable for trajectory tracking, in the sense of Lyapunov, as long as the controller gains are positive. In this paper, we first establish that for simple PD controllers, the criteria of positive controller gains are insufficient to establish asymptotic stability, and second that for the augmented PD controller the criteria of positive controller gains are valid only when there is no uncertainty in the model parameters. We show both these results for a simple planar two-degrees-of-freedom (2DOFs) robot with two rotary (R) joints, following a desired periodic trajectory, using the Floquet theory. We provide numerical simulation results which conclusively demonstrate the same.