  This paper proposes a new nonlinear stability analysis for the
acceleration-based robust position control of robot manipulators by using
Disturbance Observer (DOb). It is shown that if the nominal inertia matrix is
properly tuned in the design of DOb, then the position error asymptotically
goes to zero in regulation control and is uniformly ultimately bounded in
trajectory tracking control. As the bandwidth of DOb and the nominal inertia
matrix are increased, the bound of error shrinks, i.e., the robust stability
and performance of the position control system are improved. However, neither
the bandwidth of DOb nor the nominal inertia matrix can be freely increased due
to practical design constraints, e.g., the robust position controller becomes
more noise sensitive when they are increased. The proposed stability analysis
provides insights regarding the dynamic behavior of DOb-based robust motion
control systems. It is theoretically and experimentally proved that
non-diagonal elements of the nominal inertia matrix are useful to improve the
stability and adjust the trade-off between the robustness and noise
sensitivity. The validity of the proposal is verified by simulation and
experimental results.
