Prescribed performance tracking control of a free-flying flexible-joint space robot with disturbances under input saturation

Abstract

Abstract Aiming at the trajectory tracking of a free-flying flexible-joint space robot (FFSR) with unknown time-varying disturbances and input saturation, we develop a robust control law with prescribed performance constraints via backstepping technique. A disturbance observer is employed to estimate the unknown time-varying disturbances and two auxiliary systems are introduced to handle input saturation. Moreover, we use the dynamic surface control (DSC) technique to deal with the complexity explosion caused by multiple derivatives of the virtual control signals. The performance function and transformation function are utilized to improve the tracking performance. It is proved that the designed control law can maintain the tracking error of the FFSR within a predefined region, while guaranteeing the uniform ultimate boundedness of all signals in the FFSR closed-loop control system. Finally, simulations are carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed prescribed performance tracking control.