In this study, a three degrees of freedom (3 DOF) rigid-link robotic manipulator (RLM) has been simulated by using the Simscape model and the mathematical model derived by Lagrange method. The robot arm has been regulated by an Optimized PID Controller to achieve better tracking performance and reasonable robustness against disturbances and payload uncertainty. To optimize the controller, a novel nature-inspired Golden Jackal Optimization (GJO) algorithm has been used due to its efficient exploration that increases the diversity of the released solutions and its exploitation schemes which enhance the best-explored solutions. The tuning process has utilized a Lyapunov stability function as the objective function (OF) and the efficacy of the proposed algorithm is evaluated through a comprehensive comparison with various state-of-the-art metaheuristic techniques such as Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Artificial Bee Colony (ABC), Jellyfish Search Optimizer (JSO), Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA), Arithmetic Optimization Algorithm (AOA) and Sine Cosine Algorithm (SCA). The assessment has been conducted on benchmark error-based functions, providing rigorous testing and validation of the algorithm’s performance. Furthermore, the performance evaluation has focused on the system’s robustness against disturbances, noise, and variations in the payload mass, particularly in the context of Pick and Place (PNP) industrial tasks. The results of simulation have demonstrated that the optimized system, employing the Lyapunov function, demonstrated superior performance in minimizing the objective function value compared to other benchmark functions.