A Robust Adaptive Non-Singular Terminal Sliding Mode Control: Application to an Upper-Limb Exoskeleton with Disturbances and Uncertain Dynamics

Abstract

This paper presents a new control strategy for uncertain upper-limb exoskeleton systems, which are known to have high nonlinearities, unmodeled dynamics, and uncertainties. The proposed technique is based on the terminal sliding mode control algorithm and its nonsingular design method and incorporates an adaptive control approach to estimate the upper bounds of the unknown system uncertainties, which helps to improve the accuracy of the control and reduce the effects of disturbances. The stability of the proposed control strategy is confirmed using Lyapunov theory, and its effectiveness is tested on a two-degrees-of-freedom upper-limb exoskeleton. The results demonstrate that the proposed control scheme provides robust, fast, and finite-time convergence as well as an effective control approach capable of dealing with the disturbances and uncertainties that such systems are prone to.