Fractional order sliding mode control for single link flexible manipulator

A fractional order sliding mode control (FOSMC) scheme for control of a single link flexible manipulator is proposed in this paper. Fractional order sliding mode controller is designed and its performance is compared with the traditional sliding mode controller. Here, `fractional´ refers to the inclusion of fractional derivatives in the differential equation governing the dynamics of the switching surface. The control law of the proposed FOSMC scheme is designed using Lyapunov stability analysis. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed FOSMC not only achieves better control performance with smaller chattering than that with integer order sliding mode control, but also is robust to external load disturbance and parameter variations.