Classical and generalized variable structure control of a manipulator arm with pneumatic artificial muscles

This paper presents the implementation of Classical Variable Structure (CVS) control of a manipulator arm actuated by Pneumatic Artificial Muscle (PAM). The choice of this control technique is based on its reputation for robustness towards modeling errors, parametric uncertainties and external disturbances. However, chattering is the major disadvantage of sliding mode. To reduce it, number of solutions exist, in this paper is presented Generalized Variable Structure (GVS) control. Simulation and implementation results are presented and discussed.