Controllability and stabilization of programmed motions of an automobile-type transport robot

A non-linear model of the motion of an automobile-type transport robot (TR) with absolutely rigid wheels, a steering device and actuators based on DC motors, is considered. Such a model for TR motion is a non-holonomic electromechanical system and, if the dynamics of the actuators and the steering device (forces of elasticity and attenuation in its elements) is ignored, corresponds to the model of automobile motion devised by Lineikin [1]. Non-linear canonical transformations of the state and control space coordinates are constructed which reduce the initial equations of motion of the TR to a simpler canonical form, convenient for the analysis and synthesis of control systems for the TR. These transformations are used to find the conditions for the controllability of the TR as a controlled object. Algorithms are given for constructing programmed controls and programmed motions of the TR. Stabilizing control laws are synthesized that make the programmed motions of the TR asymptotically stable and guarantee that the transients will have preassigned properties     

Three-Dimensional Maneuvering and Control of Flexible Robots

This paper develops a general approach to the three-dimensional maneuver and vibration control of a robot in the form of a chain of flexible links. The equations for the rigid-body maneuvering motions are derived by means of Lagrange equations in terms of quasi-coordinates and the equations for the elastic deformations by means of ordinary Lagrange equations. The equations of motion are derived for the full system simultaneously, using recursive equations to relate the motions of a given link to the motions of the preceding links in the chain. The maneuver is carried out by means of joint torques and the vibration is suppressed by means of point actuators dispersed throughout the links. The controls are designed by the Liapunov direct method. A numerical example demonstrates the theoretical developments.     

Motion planning for a piezo-actuated structure modeling a wingsail

This contribution presents the modeling and the motion planning of a flexible interconnected beam structure representing a wingsail. The structure is equipped with spatially distributed embedded actuators. The solution of the motion planning provides a feedforward control law to realize a desired spatial-temporal out-of-plane deflection trajectory. For this, a systematic flatness-based methodology is proposed, that allows for an efficient numerical solution exploiting, e.g., finite element approximations. (© 2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Adaptive Inverse Control Using a Gradient-Projection Optimization Technique

As an application of an optimization technique, a gradient-projection method is employed to derive an adaptive algorithm for updating the parameters of an inverse which is designed to cancel the effects of actuator uncertainties in a control system. The actuator uncertainty is parametrized by a set of unknown parameters which belong to a parameter region. A desirable inverse is implemented with adaptive estimates of the actuator parameters. Minimizing an estimation error, a gradient algorithm is used to update such parameter estimates. To ensure that the parameter estimates also belong to the parameter region, the adaptive update law is designed with parameter projection. With such an adaptive inverse, desired control system performance can be achieved despite the presence of the actuator uncertainties.     

Design and Control of a Pneumatic Hybrid Actuator

To simulate arbitrary force/displacement relationships, a hybrid actuator consisting of a .uidic muscle and a linear pressure spring is presented. Fluidic Muscles are interesting in their use as actuators in robotics, since they have a high power/weight ratio, a slip-stick free motion and a long durability. The operating point is de.ned as the half contracted-stroke of the muscle. The present paper describes a procedure to simulate virtual stiffness of a linear actuator by choosing an operating point of the pre-stressed muscle and applying PID Control to produce desired forces as function of state. The results are presented for a testbed. It is shown how the aforementioned control scheme produces a rapid and .exible stiffnes simulation. The device can be employed for later use in general environments such as motion simulations. (© 2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Nonlinear Modeling and Tracking Control of a Hydraulic Rotary Vane Actuator

Rotary vane actuators as rotational drives provide rotational movements directly because they are constructed as a joint and actuator in one. So it is possible to pass on the disadvantageous transmission kinematics used with the so far usual differential cylinders at the arms of large manipulators. However, the use of hydraulic rotary vane actuators is associated with high internal oil leakage and/or high friction. Therefore, a nonlinear dynamic model for such an actuator, driving a rigid robot arm, as well as its nonlinear control are derived. To achieve tracking control a model based control law is set up using fundamental linear differential equations for the tracking error. The control law is implemented and tested on a testbed, the produced experimental results are presented. The same control algorithm can also be used to realize nonlinear disturbance attenuation for hydraulic rotary vane actuators via tracking control. (© 2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

重复结构振动控制的降维方法

提出了对称结构、旋转周期结构和链式结构的振动控制的降维方法．以某种对称的方式设置广义坐标的凝聚、传感器、驱动器的位置以及输入与控制力的关系,即可使控制系统具有和结构同样的重复性．对凝聚了的广义坐标和系统输入采用适当的变换,即可通过执行一些子结构的控制问题实现整体系统的振动控制,从而使控制问题的维度显著降低．     

A numerical method for the servo constraint problem of underactuated mechanical systems

Servo constraints are used in inverse dynamics simulations of discrete mechanical systems, especially for trajectory tracking control problems [1], whose desired outputs are represented by state variables and treated as servo constraints [2]. Servo constraint problems can be classified into fully actuated and underactuated multibody systems, and the equations of motion take the form of differential algebraic equations (DAEs) including holonomic and servo constraints. For fully actuated systems, control inputs can be solved from the equations by model inversion, as the input distribution matrix is nonsingular and invertible. However, underactuated systems have more degrees of freedom than control inputs. The input distribution matrix is not invertible, and in contrast to passive constraints, the realization of servo constraints with the use of control forces can range from orthogonal to tangential [3]. Therefore, it is challenging for the determination of control inputs which force the underactuated system to realize the partly specified motion. For differentially flat underactuated systems, the differentiation index of DAEs may exceed three. Hence we need to apply specific index reduction techniques, such as the projection approach applied in [3], [4], and [6]. The present work applies index reduction by minimal extension [5] to differentially flat underactuated crane systems and shows that the index can be reduced from five to three and even to one. (© 2015 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Adaptive PID-tracking control of muscle-like actuated compliant robotic systems with input constraints

In this paper, adaptive control strategies are analyzed to control a compliant robot arm in form of a double pendulum structure. Powered by antagonistic, muscle-like actuators, the controller shall enable the system to track prescribed trajectories for a desired movement of the arm, as quickly and precisely as possible. But, due to the natural muscle behavior, the control variables underly prescribed bounds: the limited control inputs are generated by muscle intensities. Therefore, feedback strategies are sought which have to be limited/saturated from the very beginning. For this, at first, simulation studies of adaptive λ-tracking controllers are performed to apply the best-rated ones to the compliant robotic system. After some model adjustments concerning the mechanics of a prototype (for experimental verification), an intensity control is determined, to divide the controller variables to the respective muscle pairs. Various numerical simulations of a system with DoF=2 show the effectiveness of the saturated controllers in set-point and tracking control. The efficiency of these controllers is verified and proven in experiments of a prototype.     

Geometry of a five link mechanism with two degrees of freedom

The paper is devoted to the solution of straight and inverse geometrical tasks of five link mechanism with two degrees of freedom. The solution of the mentioned problem is very important in order to determine kinematic parameters of actuators. The problem can be divided into two parts. The first part is considered when we are given the coordinates of the output link of the mechanism and the necessity arises of determining the angles of rotation of actuators. On the other hand, it is very important to determine the position of the output link when the angles of rotation of the actuators are known. Here we consider that the mechanism is composed only of five classes of rotating kinematic pairs and the actuators are situated at the junctions of frames and links of the examined mechanism. The solution of the said problem is based on utilization of homogenous coordinates. On the basis of the obtained equations of motion, one can calculate the trajectories of motion of the output link as well angles of rotation of the actuators by taking into consideration preliminary given kinematic parameters of the mechanism. Here we also obtain equations for calculating values of speed and acceleration of the links of the mechanism. The calculations differ from known methods in simplicity and high performance, which would be useful for programming actuators mounted in the joints of the linkage.     

Dynamics-Based Motion Planning for a Pendulum-Actuated Spherical Rolling Robot

This paper deals with the dynamics and motion planning for a spherical rolling robot with a pendulum actuated by two motors. First, kinematic and dynamic models for the rolling robot are introduced. In general, not all feasible kinematic trajectories of the rolling carrier are dynamically realizable. A notable exception is when the contact trajectories on the sphere and on the plane are geodesic lines. Based on this consideration, a motion planning strategy for complete reconfiguration of the rolling robot is proposed. The strategy consists of two trivial movements and a nontrivial maneuver that is based on tracing multiple spherical triangles. To compute the sizes and the number of triangles, a reachability diagram is constructed. To define the control torques realizing the rest-to-rest motion along the geodesic lines, a geometric phase-based approach has been employed and tested under simulation. Compared with the minimum effort optimal control, the proposed technique is less computationally expensive while providing similar system performance, and thus it is more suitable for real-time applications.     

Parallel optimal control with multiple shooting, constraints aggregation and adjoint methods

In this paper, constraint aggregation is combined with the adjoint and multiple shooting strategies for optimal control of differential algebraic equations (DAE) systems. The approach retains the inherent parallelism of the conventional multiple shooting method, while also being much more efficient for large scale problems. Constraint aggregation is employed to reduce the number of nonlinear continuity constraints in each multiple shooting interval, and its derivatives are computed by the adjoint DAE solver DASPKADJOINT together with ADIFOR and TAMC, the automatic differentiation software for forward and reverse mode, respectively. Numerical experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach.     

Optimal control for stochastic linear quadratic singular periodic neuro Takagi–Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy system with singular cost using ant colony programming

In this paper, optimal control for stochastic linear singular periodic neuro Takagi–Sugeno (T–S) fuzzy system with singular cost is obtained using ant colony programming (ACP). To obtain the optimal control, the solution of matrix Riccati differential equation (MRDE) is computed by solving differential algebraic equation (DAE) using a novel and nontraditional ACP approach. ACP solution is equivalent or very close to the exact solution of the problem. The ACP solution is compared with the solution of traditional Runge Kutta (RK) method. An illustrative numerical example is presented for the proposed method.     

Genetic algorithm based wireless vibration control of multiple modal for a beam by using photostrictive actuators

The lanthanum-modified lead zirconate titanate (PLZT) actuator, which are capable of converting photonic energy to mechanical motion, have great potential in applications of remote structural vibration control of smart structures and machines. In this paper, a novel genetic algorithm based controlling algorithm for multi-modal vibration control of beam structures via photostrictive actuators is proposed. Two pairs of photostrictive actuators are laminated with the beams and the alternation of light irradiation is in accordance with the changing of the corresponding modal velocity direction. The modal force indexes for beams with different boundary conditions are derived and a binary-coded GA is used to optimize the locations and sizes of photostrictive actuators to maximize the modal force index and guarantee the overall modal force index induced by two pairs of photostrictive actuators is positive. The control effect of multiple vibration modes of beams under irradiation of set/variable light intensity is analyzed. Numerical results demonstrate that the method is robust and efficient, and the use of strategically positioned actuator patches can effectively control the first two bending modes that dominate the structural vibration.     

A new approach to the incorporation of servo constraints in multibody dynamics

A new index reduction approach is developed to solve the servo constraint problems [2] in the inverse dynamics simulation of underactuated mechanical systems. The servo constraint problem of underactuated systems is governed by differential algebraic equations (DAEs) with high index. The underlying equations of motion contain both holonomic constraints and servo constraints in which desired outputs (specified in time) are described in terms of state variables. The realization of servo constraints with the use of control forces can range from orthogonal to tangential [3]. Since the (differentiation) index of the DAEs is often higher than three for underactuated systems, in which the number of degrees of freedom is greater than the control outputs/inputs, we propose a new index reduction method [1] which makes possible the stable numerical integration of the DAEs. We apply the proposed method to differentially flat systems, such as cranes [1,4,5], and non-flat underactuated systems. (© 2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

A method for determining control inputs for prescribed accelerations of the end-effector of a motion-simulator robot

Described in this paper is an approach for generating control inputs for an industrial Kuka robot such that it produces prescribed linear acceleration time histories for a given point of the end-effector. The method takes into account the workspace limits, and uses the internal interpolation cycle of the robot controller to generate the corresponding trajectories that will produce the prescribed accelerations. The PI parameters of the internal interpolation are identified from test measurements. The control scheme consists in producing time-varying values for the desired angle values of the interpolation algorithm, making the changes as the algorithm proceeds and thus generating smooth trajectories. The resulting acceleration of these trajectories is compared to the prescribed accelerations, and an optimization procedure is run such as to determine the required time-histories of the desired angles for the interpolation algorithm such that both accelerations match. The approach is demonstrated for the example of a 500kg payload Kuka robot that is aimed at producing given motions as a physical motion simulator (e. g. for cars or complex working machines). It is shown that the desired accelerations can be generated accurately and with high repeatability, making the approach suitable for example for simulating car rollover tests. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Directional fields algebraic non-linear solution equations for mobile robot planning

In this study, a novel approach to robot navigation/planning by using half-cell electrochemical potentials is presented. The half-cell electrode’s potential is modelled by the Nernst equation to yield automatic search/detection of pipeline flaws by using the direct current voltage gradient (DCVG) technique. We introduce a theory of spherical volumetric electric density in the soil to sustain our postulates for navigational potential fields. The Nernst potential is correlated with the distance to a pipe’s flaw by proposing a fitted theoretical-empirical nonlinear regression model. From this, volumetric derivatives are solved as gradient-based fields to control wheeled robot’s motion. A nonlinear system for trajectory planning is proposed, and analytically solved by an algebraic solution. This solution directly adjust robot’s speed kinematic values to lead it toward the flaw. The inverse/forward kinematic constraints are non-holonomic, and are recursively integrated into the general potential equation. Analytical modelling is reported, and a set of numerical simulations are presented to prove the feasibility of the proposed formulations.     

Differential Elimination–Completion Algorithms for DAE and PDAE

Differential–algebraic equations (DAE) and partial differential–algebraic equations (PDAE) are systems of ordinary equations and PDAEs with constraints. They occur frequently in such applications as constrained multibody mechanics, spacecraft control, and incompressible fluid dynamics.
A DAE has differential index r if a minimum of r +1 differentiations of it are required before no new constraints are obtained. Although DAE of low differential index (0 or 1) are generally easier to solve numerically, higher index DAE present severe difficulties.
Reich et al. have presented a geometric theory and an algorithm for reducing DAE of high differential index to DAE of low differential index. Rabier and Rheinboldt also provided an existence and uniqueness theorem for DAE of low differential index. We show that for analytic autonomous first-order DAE, this algorithm is equivalent to the Cartan–Kuranishi algorithm for completing a system of differential equations to involutive form. The Cartan–Kuranishi algorithm has the advantage that it also applies to PDAE and delivers an existence and uniqueness theorem for systems in involutive form. We present an effective algorithm for computing the differential index of polynomially nonlinear DAE. A framework for the algorithmic analysis of perturbed systems of PDAE is introduced and related to the perturbation index of DAE. Examples including singular solutions, the Pendulum, and the Navier–Stokes equations are given. Discussion of computer algebra implementations is also provided.     

The Lightweight Robot ElRob: Interesting Aspects in Modeling and Control

The articulated robot ElRob, consisting of flexible links and joints, is considered in several publications. Recent developments are presented in this work. The overall goal of the research is to decrease the effects of structural elasticities in lightweight robots. For this purpose model-based control concepts are investigated and very accurate and efficient kinematic and dynamic models are necessary. The robot is split into groups of bodies, the so called subsystems, with separated describing velocities and coordinate systems. To obtain structured equations of motion the Projection Equation is used. The beams are modelled using the floating frame of reference formulation and a Ritz-approach. Because of its flexibility, the examined robot is an underactuated system leading to special difficulties. As an example is it not possible to compute the desired joint angles with respect to a reference path in task space for the flexible system (inverse kinematic problem). Different methods to solve this drawback and other problems resulting from flexibility are discussed with special focus on feed forward control and different feedback control concepts. The resulting end point error, the necessary control input and other interesting results for the laboratory experiment are presented and compared. (© 2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)