Performance assessment of a trajectory-tracking approach for a manipulator with uncertainties using inverse fuzzy arithmetic

A trajectory-tracking approach for a parallel kinematic manipulator with flexible links is investigated with respect to its robustness to undesired initial oscillations. For this purpose, an inverse fuzzy arithmetical scheme is presented and applied, in order to estimate allowable bounds on the initial conditions such that a certain tolerance band around the desired trajectory is not violated. The uncertainty bounds on the initial conditions obtained from this identification procedure indicate the influence of the disturbances on the tracking error, and thus also the robustness and the performance of the control scheme. (© 2015 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

An adaptive sliding mode backstepping control for the mobile manipulator with nonholonomic constraints

To solve disturbances, nonlinearity, nonholonomic constraints and dynamic coupling between the platform and its mounted robot manipulator, an adaptive sliding mode controller based on the backstepping method applied to the robust trajectory tracking of the wheeled mobile manipulator is described in this article. The control algorithm rests on adopting the backstepping method to improve the global ultimate asymptotic stability and applying the sliding mode control to obtain high response and invariability to uncertainties. According to the Lyapunov stability criterion, the wheeled mobile manipulator is divided into several stabilizing subsystems, and an adaptive law is designed to estimate the general nondeterminacy, which make the controller be capable to drive the trajectory tracking error of the mobile manipulator to converge to zero even in the presence of perturbations and mathematical model errors. We compare our controller with the robust neural network based algorithm in nonholonomic constraints and uncertainties, and simulation results prove the effectivity and feasibility of the proposed method in the trajectory tracking of the wheeled mobile manipulator.     

Mathematical modeling and trajectory planning of mobile manipulators with flexible links and joints

This paper is concerned with mathematical modeling and optimal motion designing of flexible mobile manipulators. The system is composed of a multiple flexible links and flexible revolute joints manipulator mounted on a mobile platform. First, analyzing on kinematics and dynamics of the model is carried out then; open-loop optimal control approach is presented for optimal motion designing of the system. The problem is known to be complex since combined motion of the base and manipulator, non-holonomic constraint of the base and highly non-linear and complicated dynamic equations as a result of the flexible nature of both links and joints are taken into account. In the proposed method, the generalized coordinates and additional kinematic constraints are selected in such a way that the base motion coordination along the predefined path is guaranteed while the optimal motion trajectory of the end-effector is generated. This method by using Pontryagin’s minimum principle and deriving the optimality conditions converts the optimal control problem into a two point boundary value problem. A comparative assessment of the dynamic model is validated through computer simulations, and then additional simulations are done for trajectory planning of a two-link flexible mobile manipulator to demonstrate effectiveness and capability of the proposed approach.     

Dynamic Modeling and Tracking Control of 2-Joint Manipulators in Ocean Current Environment北大核心CSCD

The hydrodynamic performance of the underwater manipulator is greatly influenced by the current load. The underwater environment is assumed to be a still water environment and the current load is only considered as a simple random disturbance in the current control research, and the traditional control precision is usually rather low. Based on the Lagrange method and the Newton-Euler method, a dynamic model for 2-joint manipulators in the uniform ocean current environment was derived. In view of the relative motion of the ocean current and the manipulator, the Morison formula was introduced to calculate the water resistance and the inertia force of the ocean current on the manipulator. Based on this dynamic model, the sliding mode control strategy was used to achieve accurate tracking of the ideal trajectory of the manipulator. The simulation results show that, compared with the PD (proportional derivative) control, the sliding mode control strategy has better control effects. © 2023 Editorial Office of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics. All rights reserved.     

Generating a reference trajectory with defined kinematics for the IRb-6 manipulator

The fundamental problem in industrial robots control concerns algorithms generating reference trajectories.References [1–4] suggest generating algorithms of a reference trajectory, which are based on an arbitrary discretization of the manipulator's internal coordinates. Each point of discretization in the external space approximating a reference trajectory corresponds to known discretized internal coordinates of the manipulator.In [5–7], iteration methods of determining the internal coordinates corresponding to external coordinates of the reference trajectory point have been suggested. In this method of internal coordinates, determining the point of the reference trajectory is being approached in successive steps of an iterative computation. In [5], a modified iterative method of generation of a straight segment reference trajectory has been presented.Analytic formulae, which are the solution of an inverse problem of manipulator kinematics, enable design of trajectory generating algorithms which compute, in one step only, the internal coordinates of points lying exactly on the reference trajectory, with the accuracy resulting from the computer register length.In this paper, the author has presented an original PLAN2 computer algorithm generating reference trajectories of motion for a task. The kinematics of those trajectories is defined at selected points through which a task is to be passed, the distances between them being optional. The algorithm is based on formulae which are analytic solutions to an inverse problem for an IRb-6 manipulator kinematics.     

Modelling of closed-chain manipulators on an excavator vehicle

The main focus of this paper is to develop a physics-based model for a closed-chain manipulator in an excavator vehicle. The derivation of closed-chain manipulator dynamic equations with a structure similar to open-chain manipulator equations is an important research problem, particularly with reference to controller design. In this paper, an approach for deriving closed-chain manipulator equations with an open-chain structure, based on trigonometric t-formulae, is presented. Holonomic loop closure constraints are employed in order to derive the closed-chain mechanism dynamics from the reduced system dynamics. The closed-chain equations, with a structure similar to serial link equations, are presented. The model incorporates the dynamic properties of the manipulator and bucket. The dynamic model for the excavation system is validated against measured data obtained from a full-scale closed-chain excavator vehicle. A dynamic model is important for the design of control strategies for trajectory tracking, a key requirement for automating the excavation task. It is noted that even though the results presented in this paper are focused on a particular excavator vehicle, the research is generic and can be adapted to any closed-chain manipulator.     

Control concepts for a parallel manipulator with flexible links

Light-weight robots are advantageous considering the low energy consumption and the low material cost. However, in light-weight structures significant oscillations can occur which make the control very challenging. Objective of this research is end-effector trajectory tracking of a parallel manipulator with flexible links. Hereby, only the manipulator's drives are used, and no additional actuation on the flexible bodies is considered. For accurate trajectory tracking, feedforward control of the manipulator is used based on inverse dynamics and servo-constraints, combined with feedback control of the drive positions. (© 2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

具有外部扰动的空间刚性机械臂姿态与末端爪手协调运动的Terminal滑模控制算法设计

讨论了载体位置无控、姿态受控情况下,具有外部扰动的漂浮基空间刚性机械臂,载体姿态与末端爪手协调运动的控制算法设计问题．结合系统动量守恒关系及Lagrange方法,建立了漂浮基空间刚性机械臂完全能控形式的系统动力学方程及运动Jacobi关系,并将其转化为状态空间形式的系统控制方程．以此为基础,根据Terminal滑模控制技术,给出了系统相关Terminal滑模面的数学表达式,在此基础上提出了具有外部扰动情况下漂浮基空间刚性机械臂载体姿态与末端爪手协调运动的Terminal滑模控制方案．提出的控制方案不但确保了闭环系统滑模阶段的存在性,同时通过Terminal滑模函数的适当选取,还保证了输出误差在有限时间内的收敛性．此外,由于确保了无论何种情况下系统初始状态均在Terminal滑模面上,从而消除了其它滑模控制方法常有的到达阶段,使得闭环系统具有全局鲁棒性和稳定性．平面两杆空间刚性机械臂的系统数值仿真,证实了方法的有效性．     

Intelligent active force control of a 3-RRR parallel manipulator incorporating fuzzy resolved acceleration control

This paper introduces a novel intelligent control scheme for robust and precise positioning and orientation of a class of highly non-linear 3-RRR (revolute-revolute-revolute) planar parallel manipulator. The primary objective is to force the manipulator to track accurately a prescribed Cartesian trajectory when the system is subjected to different types of disturbances in the forms of forced harmonic excitations. A two level fuzzy tuning resolved acceleration control (FLRAC) is first designed and implemented to the system to demonstrate the stable response of the manipulator in performing trajectory tracking tasks in the absence of the disturbances. In this scheme, the first level of fuzzy tuning is used to acquire the proportional-derivative (PD) gains linearly while the second level considers non-linear tuning for determining the other parameters of the fuzzy controller to increase its performance. Then, the controller is added in series with an active force controller (AFC) to create a novel two degree-of-freedom (DOF) controller known as FLRAC-AFC which is subsequently and rigorously tested for system robustness and accuracy in tracking the prescribed trajectory. The simulation study provides further insight into the potentials of the proposed robotic system in rejecting the disturbances for the given operating conditions. The results clearly show that the FLRAC-AFC scheme provides a much superior trajectory tracking capability compared to the conventional linear RAC alone.     

Tracking control of high-performance robots via stabilizing controllers for uncertain systems

The development of flexible manufacturing systems calls for industrial robots characterized by robustness of performance with regard to the variations of the loads and real time specification of the trajectory in the work space. In this paper, the design of a feedback controller guaranteeing such performance is considered. At first, the manipulator dynamics are embedded into a larger class of uncertain dynamical systems and a class of feedback controls is proposed that guarantees uniform ultimate boundedness of the tracking error. Successively, the methodology is specialized for the case of robotic manipulators to track trajectories described in task-oriented coordinates; the proposed control algorithm operates without requiring any explicit coordinate transformation.     

Modelling Flexible Manipulators With Motors at the Joints

A computationally efficient recursive model of a flexible manipulator with motors at the joints is described in this paper. The model adopts a mixed Eulerian and Lagrangian formulation of the equations of a flexible body and exploits the chained structure of the equations for a serial manipulator. The dynamic effects of the motors at the joints, including gyroscopic terms, are fully taken into account. Symbolic manipulation is used in a newly developed package, whose performance in detailed reproduction of the dynamic effects due to the interplay between the motors and the flexible links is assessed through simulation. A comparison between the complete model and a simplified one, where the motors are considered as simple inertias rotating around their own axis, has been carried out, using both a time domain analysis and a frequency domain analysis, in order to show the relevance of gyroscopic effects in modelling flexible robots.     

Displacement of a rigid rod in a viscous medium

The spatial displacement of an absolutely rigid vertical rod in a viscous medium is considered; the rod is hinged at the upper end to a platform moving on the surface of the viscous medium over a specified curvilinear trajectory. A load is attached to the lower end of the rod. Using a variational Lagrangian equation, a nonlinear system of ordinary differential equations in terms of the angles of rod rotation determining the position of points of this rod at any time is obtained. As an example, the problem is solved for conditions of acceleration, uniform motion, and deceleration of the reference point moving over a trajectory consisting of rectilinear sections and portions of circles. The differential equations obtained may be used in determining the position of rod-type elements suspended in a viscous medium.Donetsk. Translated from Teoreticheskaya i Prikladnaya Mekhanika, No. 21, pp. 108–112, 1990.     

Model reference control and identification of robotic manipulators under uncertainty

The robotic manipulator is considered in terms of an open kinetic chain with n-degrees of freedom, with nonlinear and nonlinearizable characteristics and couplings, and with uncertain but bounded values of system parameters. The chain is powered by n-actuators and effected by a pay-load which is unknown but within a known band.The objective is to reach for a moving target and avoid moving obstacle. It is specified in terms of a dynamic model to be followed. The well known linear model-reference adaptive control technique is extended to the nonlinear case at hand and used to stabilize the manipulator about the model, at the same time on-line identifying the uncertain parameters and the payload. The method is similar to the self-tuning control which is used in manufacturing when high speed must be combined with high accuracy and not-too-high requirements on sensors (reducing the number of transducers and reading time) as well as broadening the functional abilities of the actuators.The identification uses nonlinear identifier (predictor) system which also stabilizes the resultant response of the manipulator and itself about the desired dynamic model.Algorithms for the adaptive laws in both control and identification are provided. Numerical simulation illustrates the results.     

永磁同步电机伺服系统的有限时间位置控制

研究了永磁同步电机伺服系统的位置跟踪问题.利用反馈线性化的思想,对永磁同步电机的数学模型进行分析,实现了电机模型的精确线性化和解耦.首先,将永磁同步电机位置跟踪系统采用反馈线性化技术变换为两个线性子系统,分别对其设计相应的基于连续状态反馈线性化的有限时间控制器,并设计了有限时间负载观测器来观测估计外部负载扰动.对永磁同步电机位置跟踪的闭环系统进行了稳定性的分析.与对应的渐近稳定控制的方案相比,基于有限时间的控制方案实现了永磁同步电机对期望信号的有限时间跟踪,获得了更好的动态响应和抗扰动性能.仿真结果表明了该控制方案的有效性.     

Energy-Optimal Multi-Goal Motion Planning for Planar Robot Manipulators

In this work, the energy-optimal motion planning problem for planar robot manipulators with two revolute joints is studied, in which the end-effector of the robot manipulator is constrained to pass through a set of waypoints, whose sequence is not predefined. This multi-goal motion planning problem has been solved as a mixed-integer optimal control problem in which, given the dynamic model of the robot manipulator, the initial and final configurations of the robot, and a set of waypoints inside the workspace of the manipulator, one has to find the control inputs, the sequence of waypoints with the corresponding passage times, and the resulting trajectory of the robot that minimizes the energy consumption during the motion. The presence of the waypoint constraints makes this optimal control problem particularly difficult to solve. The mixed-integer optimal control problem has been converted into a mixed-integer nonlinear programming problem first making the unknown passage times through the waypoints part of the state, then introducing binary variables to enforce the constraint of passing once through each waypoint, and finally applying a fifth-degree Gauss–Lobatto direct collocation method to tackle the dynamic constraints. High-degree interpolation polynomials allow the number of variables of the problem to be reduced for a given numerical precision. The resulting mixed-integer nonlinear programming problem has been solved using a nonlinear programming-based branch-and-bound algorithm specifically tailored to the problem. The results of the numerical experiments have shown the effectiveness of the approach.     

Dynamic modeling of a Stewart platform using the generalized momentum approach

Dynamic modeling of parallel manipulators presents an inherent complexity, mainly due to system closed-loop structure and kinematic constraints.In this paper, an approach based on the manipulator generalized momentum is explored and applied to the dynamic modeling of a Stewart platform. The generalized momentum is used to compute the kinetic component of the generalized force acting on each manipulator rigid body. Analytic expressions for the rigid bodies inertia and Coriolis and centripetal terms matrices are obtained, which can be added, as they are expressed in the same frame. Gravitational part of the generalized force is obtained using the manipulator potential energy. The computational load of the dynamic model is evaluated, measured by the number of arithmetic operations involved in the computation of the inertia and Coriolis and centripetal terms matrices. It is shown the model obtained using the proposed approach presents a low computational load. This could be an important advantage if fast simulation or model-based real-time control are envisaged.     

A Continuous Implementation of a Second-Variation Optimal Control Method for Space Trajectory Problems

The paper describes a continuous second-variation method to solve optimal control problems with terminal constraints where the control is defined on a closed set. The integration of matrix differential equations based on a second-order expansion of a Lagrangian provides linear updates of the control and a locally optimal feedback controller. The process involves a backward and a forward integration stage, which require storing trajectories. A method has been devised to store continuous solutions of ordinary differential equations and compute accurately the continuous expansion of the Lagrangian around a nominal trajectory. Thanks to the continuous approach, the method adapts implicitly the numerical time mesh and provides precise gradient iterates to find an optimal control. The method represents an evolution to the continuous case of discrete second-order techniques of optimal control. The novel method is demonstrated on bang–bang optimal control problems, showing its suitability to identify automatically optimal switching points in the control without insight into the switching structure or a choice of the time mesh. A complex space trajectory problem is tackled to demonstrate the numerical robustness of the method to problems with different time scales.     

Fuzzy guaranteed cost controller for trajectory tracking in nonlinear systems

In this paper, we propose a fuzzy logic based guaranteed cost controller for trajectory tracking in nonlinear systems. Takagi–Sugeno (T–S) fuzzy model is used to represent the dynamics of a nonlinear system and the controller design is carried out using this fuzzy model. State feedback law is used for building the fuzzy controller whose performance is evaluated using a quadratic cost function. For designing the fuzzy logic based controller which satisfies guaranteed performance, linear matrix inequality (LMI) approach is used. Sufficient conditions are derived in terms of matrix inequalities for minimizing the performance function of the controller. The performance function minimization problem with polynomial matrix inequalities is then transformed into a problem of minimizing a convex performance function involving standard LMIs. This minimization problem can be solved easily and efficiently using the LMI optimization techniques. Our controller design method also ensures that the closed-loop system is asymptotically stable. Simulation study is carried out on a two-link robotic manipulator tracking a reference trajectory. From the results of the simulation study, it is observed that our proposed controller tracks the reference trajectory closely while maintaining a guaranteed minimum cost.     

Dynamic modelling of a rigid-flexible manipulator for constrained motion task control

A mathematical model governing the dynamics of a constrained rigid-flexible manipulator moving in a horizontal plane is derived using Hamilton's principle. A new variable is introduced before the procedure of modal expansion in order to convert the non-homogeneous boundary condition into a homogeneous one. The static tip deflection of the flexible link is allowed in order to maintain the contact force between the end effector and the constrained path and this tip deflection is considered in both the inverse kinematics and the order reduction procedures. The state vector of the proposed controller consists of joint angle of the rigid link, its derivative and integral, the first deflection mode and its derivative, and the integral of contact force. A multivariable controller is proposed for the simultaneous motion and force control of the manipulator. The controller consists of a feedforward term which contributes the torque for the expected joint angles and the contact force, and a feedback term with the time varying optimal gains obtained from the Matrix Riccati equation. Computer simulation results show that this proposed controller is capable of performing the straight line tracking task satisfactorily under four different conditions.