Finite-Time Task-Space Synchronization of Networked Robotic Manipulators

This paper studies finite-time task-space synchronization of networked manipulators with uncertain kinematics, dynamics and disturbances. Different from [8]-[12] that provide asymptotic convergence and require all the robots to have fully access to the desired global task reference, this paper proposes a distributed estimation and control framework to achieve task-space synchronization in a finite time. In particular, a super-twisting-based distributed estimator is developed firstly for each manipulator to estimate this desired global task reference in a finite time. By incorporating estimated information, a finite-time distributed adaptive control law is further designed to achieve task-space synchronization irrespective of uncertain kinematics and dynamics. To illustrate the effectiveness of proposed design, numerical simulation results are presented.