Experimental Investigation of Motion Control of a Closed-Kinematic Chain Robot Manipulator Using Synchronization Sliding Mode Method with Time Delay Estimation

Closed-Kinematic Chain Manipulators (CKCM) have gained attention due to their precise Cartesian motion capability through coordinated active joint movements. Furthermore, ensuring synchronization among the joints of CKCMs is critical for reliable operations. An advanced control scheme for CKCMs that combines Nonsingular Fast Terminal Sliding Mode Control (NFTSMC) with Time-Delay Estimation (TDE) while utilizing synchroniza-tion errors, namely Syn-TDE-NFTSMC, to effectively address joint errors in CKCMs was developed in [1, 2]. NFTSMC enables fast convergence through nonlinear terminal sliding while TDE eliminates the need for prior knowledge of the robot’s dynamics, thereby sim-plifying its implementation and reducing its computational requirements. The developed control scheme was rigorously evaluated in [1, 2] using computer simulation and its con-trol performance was compared with those of existing control methods. This paper pre-sents results of an experimental study where the developed control scheme was applied on a real CKCM with 2 degrees of freedom (DOF). Supported by computer simulation study conducted on this manipulator, experimental results show that this control scheme outperformed other existing control schemes in terms of synchronization and control per-formance. The results confirm the efficacy of the developed control scheme in enhancing control precision and system stability, making it a promising solution for improving CKCM control strategies in real-world applications.