A novel PID tuning method for robot control

Purpose – This paper aims to address a new iterative tuning method of PID control for robot manipulators. Design/methodology/approach – This tuning method uses several properties of the robot control, such as any PD control can stabilize a robot in regulation case, the closed-loop system of PID control can be approximated by a linear system, the control torque to the robot manipulator is linearly independent of the robot dynamic. Findings – Compared with the other PID tuning methods, this novel method is simple, systematic, and stable. The transient properties of this PID control are better than the other normal PID controllers. Originality/value – In this paper, a new systematic tuning method for PID control is proposed. The paper applies this method on an upper limb exoskeleton, and real experiment results give validation of our PID tuning method.