基于能量分析的桥式起重机防摆控制方法

针对欠驱动桥式起重机在自动化驾驶研究中负载升/落吊运动与台车水平位移联动时,负载摆动抑制效果和控制性能不能满足实际工程需要,易造成安全事故的问题,提出一种基于能量分析的桥式起重机联动系统非线性耦合防摆控制器.采用非线性耦合控制方法,构造新型储能函数,设计出非线性耦合防摆控制器.利用LaSalle不变性原理和Lyapunov方法对该闭环反馈系统稳定性进行严格的数学分析.理论推导、仿真与实验结果表明:相比于非线性跟踪控制器和局部反馈线性化控制器,所提非线性耦合防摆控制器具有更佳的控制性能,不仅提高了负载的吊运效率,而且能够有效抑制和快速消除负载摆角;在添加外部扰动的情况下,仍能取得良好的控制效果,具有较强的鲁棒性,为桥式起重机联动系统提供了一种新的防摆控制方法.     

Combined control with sliding mode and partial feedback linearization for 3D overhead cranes

A 3D overhead crane is an underactuated system consisting of five outputs: trolley position, bridge translation, cable length, and two cargo swings. These outputs are controlled by three actuators for cargo hoisting, trolley motion, and bridge traveling. This study proposes the use of a nonlinear controller that performs five tasks concurrently: cargo hoisting, trolley tracking, bridge motion, payload vibration suppression during transport, and cargo swing elimination at the destination. The proposed algorithm is combined with two control components: (i) partial feedback linearization, which is a precursor to controller design, to suppress cargo vibration; and (ii) sliding mode method, which provides robust control in lifting the payload and driving trolley and bridge motions against model imprecision and uncertainty. These two control mechanisms are successfully merged into a combined controller because the kinematic relationships between the state variables are made apparent in the system dynamics. Simulation and experimental results show that the proposed controller asymptotically stabilizes all system responses.Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Obstacle avoidance tracking control with antiswing and tracking errors constraint for underactuated automated lifting robots with load hoisting/lowering

The existing automated lifting robot technology focuses merely on motion control and ignores the surrounding environment. In practice, obstacles inevitably exist in the movement path of the automated lifting robot, which affects construction safety. Furthermore, due to the underactuated characteristics of the automated lifting robot, the load can be difficult to control when it swings violently, which undoubtedly poses huge challenges to obstacle avoidance trajectory planning and controller design. In this paper, an obstacle avoidance trajectory and its tracking controller with antiswing and tracking errors constraint are proposed. To ensure accurate load positioning and effective obstacle avoidance, the proposed control method introduces a four-segment polynomial trajectory interpolation curve to construct an obstacle avoidance trajectory based on analyzing the geometric relationship between variables. To improve the transient coupling control performance of the system, combined with the passive analysis of the automated lifting robot system, this method constructs a potential function that limits the tracking error and a coupling signal that enhances the coupling relationship between the system variables. Barbalat's lemma and Lyapunov techniques are used to analyze the stability of the system. Simulation and experimental results show that the proposed control method can significantly suppress or even eliminate load oscillation, accurately locate the load, avoid obstacles, improve the safety and efficiency of the working automated lifting robot, and have strong robustness to changes in system parameters and the addition of external disturbances.     

Nonlinear tracking control of underactuated cranes with load transferring and lowering: Theory and experimentation

A bridge crane is a complicated nonlinear underactuated mechatronic system, for which high-speed positioning and anti-swing control is the kernel objective. Existing methods for varying cable length cranes require either linearizations or approximations, when performing analysis, and they usually assume small load swing; moreover, the ranges of the tracking errors cannot be guaranteed during the overall process. Motivated by these facts, we present a new tracking scheme for cranes with load horizontal transportation and lowering control, which achieves simultaneous load swing suppression and elimination. To the best of our knowledge, the proposed method yields the first feedback closed-loop control result not needing linearization or approximation operations to the original nonlinear crane dynamics with cable length variation, while relaxing the common assumption imposed on load swing associated with existing methods. It can also guarantee that the tracking errors are always within a priori set bounds and converge to zero rapidly. Lyapunov-like analysis is implemented to support the theoretical derivations. We carry out hardware experiments to illustrate the superior control performance of the new method.     

An Enhanced Coupling Nonlinear Tracking Controller for Underactuated 3D Overhead Crane Systems

An enhanced coupling nonlinear tracking control method for an underactuated 3D overhead crane systems is set forth in the present paper. The proposed tracking controller guarantees a smooth start for the trolley and solves the problem of the payload swing angle amplitude increasing as the transferring distance gets longer for the regulation control methods. Different from existing tracking control methods, the presented control approach has an improved transient performance. More specifically, by taking the operation experience, mathematical analysis of the overhead crane system, physical constraints, and operational efficiency into consideration, we first select two desired trajectories for the trolley. Then, a new storage function is constructed by the introduction of two new composite signals, which increases the coupling behaviour between the trolley movement and payload swing. Next, a novel tracking control strategy is designed according to the derivation form of the aforementioned storage function. Lyapunov techniques and Barbalat's Lemma are used to demonstrate the stability of the closed‐loop system without any approximation manipulations to the original nonlinear dynamics. Finally, some simulation and experiments are used to demonstrate the superior transient performance and strong robustness with respect to different cable lengths, payload masses, destinations, and external disturbances of the enhanced coupling nonlinear tracking control scheme.     

Optimal elastic coupling in form of one mechanical spring to improve energy efficiency of walking bipedal robots

This paper presents a method to optimize the energy efficiency of walking bipedal robots by more than 80 % in a speed range from 0.3 to 2.3 m/s using elastic couplings—mechanical springs with movement speed independent parameters. The considered planar robot consists of a trunk, two two-segmented legs, two actuators in the hip joints, two actuators in the knee joints and an elastic coupling between the shanks. It is modeled as underactuated system to make use of its natural dynamics and feedback controlled via input–output linearization. A numerical optimization of the joint angle trajectories as well as the elastic couplings is performed to minimize the average energy expenditure over the whole speed range. The elastic couplings increase the swing leg motion’s natural frequency thus making smaller steps more efficient which reduce the impact loss at the touchdown of the swing leg. The process of energy turnover is investigated in detail for the robot with and without elastic coupling between the shanks. Furthermore, the influences of the elastic couplings’ topology and of joint friction are analyzed. It is shown that the optimization of the robot’s motion and elastic coupling towards energy efficiency leads to a slightly slower convergence rate of the controller, yet no loss of stability, but a lower sensitivity with respect to disturbances. The optimal elastic coupling discovered via numerical optimization is a linear torsion spring with transmissions between the shanks. A design proposal for this elastic coupling—which does not affect the robot’s trunk and parallel shank motion and can be used to enhance an existing robot—is given for planar as well as spatial robots.     

龙门吊车系统的动力学建模

针对龙门吊车这一典型的欠驱动机械系统，采用拉格朗日方程的方法建立了其动力学模型。该模型同时考虑了吊车系统水平方向、前后方向和垂直方向上的三维运动以及由这些运动导致的负载摆角变化，且负载在二维空间的摆动角度通过特殊定义的二维平面的摆角进行描述。根据负载摆角的定义方式，取消三维吊车系统动力学模型的一个运动自由度直接将得到广泛研究的二维吊车系统的动力学模型。为了便于进行控制器的设计，还给出了近似条件下的龙门吊车系统的线性化模型。最后，数字仿真实验结果证明了动力学模型的有效性。     

基于自适应方法的桥式吊车的防摇定位控制器的设计

针对一类欠驱动非线性桥式吊车,设计了一种自适应控制器,它不需要对吊车模型进行近似解耦或线性化处理,不需要事先知道桥吊的精确的数学模型的参数信息,在负载质量等参数发生变化的情况下,能够实现对桥吊小车的精确定位与负载摆动的有效抑制,文中同时对该方法的稳定性进行了理论分析.该控制方法具有结构简单,计算量小的特点.数值仿真结果证实了本控制方法的良好效果.     

欠驱动三维桥式吊车系统自适应跟踪控制器设计

针对三维桥式吊车系统的欠驱动特性, 设计了一种目标轨迹自适应跟踪控制器. 相比其他常规的三维桥式吊车控制器, 它不需要对吊车模型进行任何近似解耦或线性化处理, 并且考虑了系统所受的摩擦力与空气阻力等干扰. 在负载质量和吊绳绳长等发生变化或存在不确定因素的情况下, 它依然能实现对台车的精确定位与负载摆动的有效抑制. 对于闭环系统的稳定性, 文中通过Lyapunov方法和芭芭拉定理对其进行了理论分析, 随后的实验结果也表明了这种自适应跟踪控制器良好的控制性能和对不确定性因素的适应性.     

垂直三连杆欠驱动机械臂通用控制策略设计

本文针对一类含单一欠驱动关节的垂直三连杆欠驱动机械臂提出一种基于振荡衰减轨迹的通用控制策略. 与传统的分区控制策略相比, 本文控制策略无需采用分区方式就能快速地实现将机械臂末端点由垂直向下初始位 置开始移动, 并最终稳定在垂直向上目标位置的控制目标. 首先, 根据驱动连杆的初始和目标状态, 为驱动连杆规划 含可调参数的振荡衰减轨迹. 该轨迹能够在一定调节时间内将驱动连杆直接由初始状态移动至目标状态. 基于连 杆状态间的耦合关系, 利用粒子群优化算法优化轨迹参数使欠驱动连杆在相同调节时间内也运动至目标状态. 接 着, 利用滑模方法设计跟踪控制器使驱动连杆跟踪优化后的振荡衰减轨迹, 这样, 系统末端点将由初始位置移动至 目标位置. 进一步利用极点配置方法设计镇定控制器克服重力的作用将末端点稳定在目标位置. 最后, 通过仿真实 验验证所提控制策略的有效性.     

防摆吊具刚柔耦合动力学分析与结构拓扑优化

传统吊装夹具应用在有色金属板电解、检测、分拣等工序的搬运等过程,易会出现摆动磕碰等情况,需要设计一种在吊装运动过程中可以防止金属板摆动和减少对金属板表面质量损坏的防摆机构。通过在Pro/E中建立吊装夹具三维模型并装配出整体机构,由于防摆机构在工况下高速运动并且为薄板零件,所以通过柔性体替代刚体进行动力学分析,以模仿真实运动情况。利用HyperMesh做模态分析,导出MNF文件到ADAMS中,建立机构的刚柔耦合模型。动力学分析输出各构件在防摆机构夹紧运动过程中各铰接处的受力情况以及接触处的冲击载荷。利用OptiStruct进行拓扑优化使得机构整体结构减重48.1%,减轻工业机器人的工作负载,减少对金属板表面的冲击,以获取更好的运动性能。     

Adaptive control of a quadrotor aerial vehicle with input constraints and uncertain parameters

In this paper, we address the problem of adaptive bounded control for the trajectory tracking of a Quadrotor Aerial Vehicle (QAV) while the input saturations and uncertain parameters with the known bounds are simultaneously taken into account. First, to deal with the underactuated property of the QAV model, we decouple and construct the QAV model as a cascaded structure which consists of two fully actuated subsystems. Second, to handle the input constraints and uncertain parameters, we use a combination of the smooth saturation function and smooth projection operator in the control design. Third, to ensure the stability of the overall system of the QAV, we develop the technique for the cascaded system in the presence of both the input constraints and uncertain parameters. Finally, the region of stability of the closed-loop system is constructed explicitly, and our design ensures the asymptotic convergence of the tracking errors to the origin. The simulation results are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

一种高效能的机器人模糊控制方案

本文提出一种高效能的模糊控制方案,来提高机器人当存在摩擦力和负载等不确定因素 时以及动力学参数变化时的系统响应特性.该控制方案是由一个模糊逻辑(FL)控制器(主 控制器)和一个传统的微分(D)控制器(辅助控制器)所构成.FL控制器用来提高系统的瞬 态特性和稳态精度,D控制器用来保证系统的稳定性.在这一控制方案基础上,获得理想控 制特性的主要思想是研究和调整语言变量的隶属度函数.模拟结果表明了这一控制方案的 有效性和鲁棒性.此外,这一控制方案具有结构简单且易于实现的优点.     

Distributed control of simulated autonomous mobile robot collectives in payload transportation

A behavior-based control paradigm that allows a distributed collection of autonomous mobile robots to control the lifting and lowering processes of payload transportation is proposed and then tested with computer simulations. This control paradigm, which represents an approach to solving the cooperative load-bearing problem inherent in multi-agent payload transportation, is based upon a control structure we term thebehavior pathway controller. The behavior pathway controller emphasizes simple, feasible methodologies over complex, optimal methodologies, although we show that with some global self-organization of the collective, the feasible solutions approach and become optimal solutions. Using this controller in simulated environments, our robots demonstrate an ability to function with inaccurate sensor data, which is an important consideration for real world implementations of an autonomous mobile robot control paradigm. The simulated robots also demonstrate an ability to learn their place, or role, within the collective. They must learn their relative roles because they possess no predetermined knowledge about pallet mass, pallet inertia, collective size, or their positions relative to the pallet's center of gravity.     

Adaptive Proportional-Derivative Sliding Mode Control Law With Improved Transient Performance for Underactuated Overhead Crane Systems

In this paper, an adaptive proportional-derivative sliding mode control (APD-SMC) law, is proposed for 2D underactuated overhead crane systems. The proposed controller has the advantages of simple structure, easy to implement of PD control, strong robustness of SMC with respect to external disturbances and uncertain system parameters, and adaptation for unknown system dynamics associated with the feedforward parts. In the proposed APD-SMC law, the PD control part is used to stabilize the controlled system, the SMC part is used to compensate the external disturbances and system uncertainties, and the adaptive control part is utilized to estimate the unknown system parameters. The coupling behavior between the trolley movement and the payload swing is enhanced and, therefore, the transient performance of the proposed controller is improved. The Lyapunov techniques and the LaSalle's invariance theorem are employed in to support the theoretical derivations. Experimental results are provided to validate the superior performance of the proposed control law.      

一类欠驱动机械系统的全局鲁棒控制

针对具有质心参数不确定性的Acrobot系统,提出一种全局的鲁棒控制方法.首先,给出系统具有质心参数不确定的系统模型;其次在摇起区,分析系统不确定性条件下的能量变化情况,基于能量不断增加的思想设计出摇起控制器;在平衡区,把系统的不确定性转化为模型状态矩阵的不确定性,引入H标准设计方法,得出存在H状态反馈控制器的充要条件,通过求解线性矩阵不等式使系统有效地克服不确定性的影响实现二次稳定;最后通过仿真实验验证了所提方法的有效性.     

欠驱动惯性轮摆系统全局滑模控制

针对欠驱动惯性轮摆的镇定控制问题,本文提出了一种新型的滑模鲁棒控制策略,可在系统受到不确定性与外界干扰影响的情况下,实现全局渐近镇定控制.区别于现有方法,本文方法无需切换,且能将无驱动的摆杆摇起至竖直向上位置的同时,确保惯性轮回到初始位置.具体而言,首先对惯性轮摆系统的非线性模型进行非奇异坐标变换,将其变为类积分器形式.随后,根据转换后系统的形式,构造了一种新型的滑模面;经严格分析知,当系统状态处于该滑模面上时,它们将渐近收敛于平衡点.在此基础之上,设计了滑模控制律以确保系统状态始终处于该滑模面上,以实现镇定控制.最后,通过仿真验证了所提控制方法的有效性与鲁棒性,并与现有方法进行了对比.     

A unified symplectic pseudospectral method for motion planning and tracking control of 3D underactuated overhead cranes

In this paper, a unified symplectic pseudospectral method for motion planning and tracking control of 3D underactuated overhead cranes is proposed. A feasible reference trajectory taking constraints into consideration is first generated offline by the symplectic pseudospectral optimal control method. Then, a trajectory tracking model predictive controller also based on the symplectic pseudospectral method is developed to track the reference trajectory. At each sampling instant, the trajectory tracking controller works by solving an open‐loop optimal control problem where linearized system dynamics is used instead to improve the computational efficiency. Since the symplectic pseudospectral optimal control method is the core algorithm for both offline trajectory planning and online trajectory tracking, constraints on state variables and control inputs can be easily imposed and hence theoretically guaranteed in solutions. By selecting proper weighted matrices on tracking error and control, the developed controller could achieve control objectives in both accurate trolley positioning and fast suppressing of residual swing angles. Simulations for 3D overhead crane systems in the presence of perturbations in initial conditions, an abrupt variation of system parameter, and various external disturbances demonstrate that the developed controller is robust and of excellent control performance.     

An Energy-based Nonlinear Coupling Control for Offshore Ship-mounted Cranes

This paper proposes a novel nonlinear energy-based coupling control for an underactuated offshore ship-mounted crane, which guarantees both precise trolley positioning and payload swing suppressing performances under external sea wave disturbance. In addition to having such typical nonlinear underactuated property, as it is well known, an offshore ship-mounted crane also suffers from much unexpected persistent disturbances induced by sea waves or currents, which, essentially different from an overhead crane fixed on land, cause much difficulty in modeling and controller design. Inspired by the desire to achieve appropriate control performance against those challenging factors, in this paper, through carefully analyzing the inherent mechanism of the nonlinear dynamics, we first construct a new composite signal to enhance the coupling behavior of the trolley motion as well as the payload swing in the presence of ship′s roll motion disturbance. Based on which, an energy-based coupling control law is presented to achieve asymptotic stability of the crane control system′s equilibrium point. Without any linearization of the complex nonlinear dynamics, unlike traditional feedback controllers, the proposed control law takes a much simpler structure independent of the system parameters. To support the theoretical derivations and to further verify the actual control performance, Lyapunov-based mathematical analysis as well as numerical simulation/experimental results are carried out, which clarify the feasibility and superior performance of the proposed method over complicated disturbances.     

Partial feedback linearization control of a three-dimensional overhead crane

Based on partial feedback linearization, an improved nonlinear controller is analyzed and designed for the three-dimensional motion of an overhead crane. Three control inputs composed of bridge moving, trolley travelling, and cargo hoisting forces are used to drive five state variables consisting of bridge motion, trolley movement, cargo hoisting displacement, and two cargo swing angles. The control scheme is constituted by linearly combining two components that are separately obtained from the nonlinear feedback of actuated and un-actuated states. To verify the quality of the control process, both numerical simulation and experimental study are carried out. The proposed controller asymptotically stabilizes all system states.