A robotic exoskeleton is a nonlinear system, which is subjected to parametric uncertainties and external disturbances. Due to this reason, it is difficult to obtain the exact model of the system, and without knowledge of the system, it cannot be compensated accurately. In this study, time delay estimation (TDE)-based model-free fractional-order nonsingular fast terminal sliding mode control (MFF-TSM) is proposed for the lower-limb robotic exoskeleton in the existence of uncertainties and external disturbance. The main characteristic of the proposed scheme is that it controls the system without relying on the knowledge of exoskeleton dynamics. At first, the fractional-order (FO) with nonsingular fast terminal sliding mode control (NFTSM) is adopted to provide a precise trajectory tracking performance, fast finite-time speed of convergence, singularity-free and chatter-free control inputs. And then, the proposed controller employs TDE, to make the controller model independent, which directly estimates the uncertain exoskeleton dynamics with external disturbances. Later, asymptotical stability analysis of the overall system and finite-time convergence are investigated and ensured using Lyapunov theorem. Finally, the simulation results are conducted to validate the efficacy of the proposed control method.

This paper proposes an adaptive fractional-order sliding mode controller to control and stabilize a nonlinear uncertain disturbed robotic manipulator in fixed-time. Fractional calculus is used to construct a fractional-order sliding mode controller (FtNTSM) that suppresses chattering to help the robotic manipulator converge to equilibrium in a fixed-settling time based on fixed-time stability theory. Then, adaptive control is introduced and combined with FtNTSM to overcome the unknown system dynamics. The convergence time of the proposed fixed-time fractional-order sliding mode controller (AFtNTSM) is independent of beginning circumstances and can be precisely assessed, unlike the finite-time control approach. Finally, numerical simulations show that the adaptive fractional-order sliding mode controller outperforms finite-time sliding mode controller.

In this study, trajectory tracking of robotic manipulators under varying loads with uncertainties and external disturbances is obtained by proposing model‐independent adaptive fractional high‐order terminal sliding mode control (AFO‐HoTSMC). The proposed AFO‐HoTSMC method is composed of an adaptive high‐order terminal sliding mode control integrated with fractional‐order (FO) control. An adaptive tuning control is utilised to evaluate the uncertain unknown dynamics of the system without relying on the prior knowledge of the upper bounds. FO control and HoTSMC are used to achieve the fast finite‐time convergence, chatter‐free control inputs, better tracking performance and robustness. The finite‐time stability of the overall system is investigated and derived from the Lyapunov stability criterion. Finally, to validate the effectiveness and robustness of the developed control method, comparative simulations with H_∞‐Adaptive control, intelligent PD (iPD), intelligent PID (iPID) and adaptive third‐order SMC (ATOSMC) are realized to demonstrate the performance of AFO‐HoTSMC.