H∞ control of a flexible gantry robot arm using smart actuators

This paper presents new feedback actuators to achieve an accurate position control of a flexible gantry robot arm. The translational motion in the plane is generated by two d.c. motors and controlled by electro-rheological (ER) clutch actuators. The generated motion can be continuously controlled by controlling the intensity of electric fields imposed to the ER fluid domains of bi-directional rotating ER clutches. On the other hand, during control action of the translational motion, a flexible arm attached to the moving part produces undesirable oscillations due to its inherent flexibility. The oscillations are actively suppressed by employing feedback voltage to the piezoceramic actuator bonded on the surface of the flexible arm. Consequently, an accurate position control at the end-point of the flexible arm can be achieved. In order to accomplish this control target, the governing equations of the proposed system are derived and rewritten as transfer functions to design a robust H_∞ controller. The control electric fields to be applied to the ER clutch and the control voltage for the piezoceramic actuator are determined via the loop shaping design procedures (LSDP) in the H_∞ control technique. Control results of position regulating and tracking are provided to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.     

Position control of hybrid pneumatic–electric actuators using discrete-valued model-predictive control

The design, modeling and position control of a novel hybrid pneumatic–electric actuator for applications in robotics and automation is presented. The design incorporates a pneumatic cylinder and DC motor connected in parallel. By avoiding the need for a high ratio transmission, the design greatly reduces the mechanical impedance that can make collisions with conventionally actuated robot arms dangerous. A novel discrete-valued model-predictive control (DVMPC) algorithm is proposed for controlling the position of the pneumatic cylinder with inexpensive on/off solenoid valves. A variant of inverse dynamics control is proposed for the DC motor. A prototype was built for validating the actuator design and control algorithms. It is used to rotate a single-link robot arm. The actuator inertia and static friction torque values for the prototype were only 0.6% and 4%, respectively, of the values found for a comparable actuator from an industrial robot. Simulation results for position control of pneumatic actuators with different valve speeds and friction coefficients show that the DVMPC algorithm outperforms a sliding mode control algorithm in terms of position error and expected valve life. Experimental results are presented for vertical rotary cycloidal trajectories. Even with the poor quantization caused by the on/off valves, the pneumatic cylinder controlled by the proposed DVMPC algorithm achieved a 0.7% root mean square error (RMSE) and a 0.25% steady-state error (SSE). With the addition of the DC motor to form the hybrid actuator, the RMSE and SSE were reduced to 0.12% and 0.04%, respectively. By incorporating a novel estimation algorithm, the system was made robust to an unknown payload.     

H∞ loop shaping for the torque-vectoring control of electric vehicles: Theoretical design and experimental assessment

This paper presents an H_∞ torque-vectoring control formulation for a fully electric vehicle with four individually controlled electric motor drives. The design of the controller based on loop shaping and a state observer configuration is discussed, considering the effect of actuation dynamics. A gain scheduling of the controller parameters as a function of vehicle speed is implemented. The increased robustness of the H_∞ controller with respect to a Proportional Integral controller is analyzed, including simulations with different tire parameters and vehicle inertial properties. Experimental results on a four-wheel-drive electric vehicle demonstrator with on-board electric drivetrains show that this control formulation does not need a feedforward contribution for providing the required cornering response in steady-state and transient conditions.     

Dual-stage HDD head positioning using an H∞ almost disturbance decoupling controller and a tracking differentiator

We adopt in this paper a novel control scheme to achieve fast and accurate head positioning for dual-stage actuated hard disk drive (HDD) servo system with actuator saturation and disturbances. This control scheme consists of a tracking differentiator (TD) to avoid actuator saturation as large as possible and an H_∞ almost disturbance decoupling controller to deal with disturbances and improve the tracking performance. More specifically, the TD aims to provide a smooth reference signal in a feedforward way so as to reduce the system error, and further decrease the control inputs to both the VCM actuator and the micro-actuator such that the saturation problem can be effectively avoided. The H_∞ almost disturbance decoupling controller, when it is applied to control the micro-actuator, is able to almost decouple the disturbance and the controlled output such that satisfactory tracking performance can be achieved. Furthermore, the VCM actuator is controlled by a notch filter in series with a lead compensator so as to stabilize the servo loop. Finally, simulation results in time domain and frequency domain verify the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.     

Human–robot cooperation control based on a dynamic model of an upper limb exoskeleton for human power amplification

In this paper, we propose a human–robot cooperation controller for the motion of the upper limb exoskeleton. The system permits three degrees of freedom using an electrical actuator that is mainly controlled by force sensor signals. These signals are used to generate the torque required to drive the exoskeleton. However, singularities exist when the force signals in the Cartesian coordinate system are transformed into torques in the joint coordinate system. Therefore, we apply the damped least squares method. When handling a load, torque compensation is required about its mass. Therefore, we installed a force sensor at the point of the robot’s end-effector. It measures the forces between the exoskeleton and the load. Then, these forces are used to compensate within a static model for handling loads. We performed control stability and load handling experiments to verify the effectiveness of the controller. Via these, we confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed controller.     

Robust H ∞ Control for a Class of 2-D Nonlinear Discrete Stochastic Systems

This paper is concerned with the problem of stability and robust H _∞ control for 2-D stochastic systems with parameter uncertainties and sector nonlinearities. The class of systems under investigation is described by the 2-D state-space Roesser model. Our attention is focused on the design of a state feedback controller for 2-D stochastic system with sector nonlinearity, such that the closed-loop 2-D stochastic system is asymptotically stable and has a prescribed H _∞ disturbance attenuation performance. First, a sufficient condition is established for the 2-D nonlinear stochastic systems to be asymptotically stable. Then, we extend the bounded real lemma for 2-D systems to 2-D stochastic systems with sector nonlinearities. Based on this lemma, solvability conditions for the H _∞ control of 2-D nonlinear stochastic systems in the form of LMIs (linear matrix inequalities) are derived. A numerical example illustrates the effectiveness of the proposed results.