Adaptive position/force control of BDC-RLED robots without velocity measurements

This paper considers the problem of controlling the position and force of a constrained rigid-link electrically-driven robot manipulator actuated by brushed DC motors (BDC-RLED robot). Based on inexact knowledge of almost all of the system parameters and the lack of link velocity measurements, the integrator backstepping approach is used to design a voltage-level, adaptive position/force controller which ensures semi-global asymptotic tracking for the end-effector position, velocity, and force.