Adaptive consensus tracking control for robotic manipulators with nonlinear time‐varying fault‐tolerant actuator and unknown control input directions.

Summary: The consensus tracking mechanism of a multi‐agent system consisting of third‐order nonlinear single joint manipulators was investigated in this study based on the pertinent industrial context. Unlike many previous studies on consensus control that presumed a known control direction, this investigation addressed the complex challenges posed by unknown control directions and time‐varying actuators. Specifically, we explored both time‐invariant and time‐varying actuator faults in scenarios wherein all parameters are unknown. The Nussbaum function was utilized to resolve time‐varying nonlinear fault‐tolerance and unknown control direction problems. In the design process of the control law, the backstepping method combining with Nussbaum function is adopted to address unmatched nonlinearity and unmatched uncertainty system, and the radial basis function neural network is used to approximate the unknown parameters The resulting control law allows all robotic manipulators to track the angle and angular velocity of the leader. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]