Robust Terminal Sliding Mode Control of Robotic Manipulators in Logistics Automation

Robotic manipulators are a core enabler of smart warehousing and resilient logistics, yet they operate under modeling uncertainty, payload variability, and external disturbances that degrade tracking accuracy and energy efficiency. We develop an adaptive sliding mode controller with non-singular terminals (ANTSMC) that achieves finite-time trajectory tracking under bounded disturbances while explicitly reducing chattering and control energy to throughput and actuator longevity in green supply chains. The design introduces (i) a terminal sliding surface that yields an explicit settling-time bound and avoids singularities, and (ii) an adaptive switching-gain law with a dead-zone correction that scales with error magnitude, improving robustness without excessive control effort. Lyapunov analysis establishes finite-time convergence and a bound on the integrated torque. Sample simulations showed that the proposed RTSMC compared favorably in terms of tracking errors, robustness, and disturbance rejection against the sliding mode controller and PID controller. Overall, the findings highlight the potential of this RTSMC to increase throughput, reliability, and efficiency of operations in advanced logistics.