Design of kinematic controller based on ant colony optimization computing method for omnidirectional mobile robots

This article presents an intelligent system-on-a-programmable-chip-based (SoPC) ant colony optimization (ACO) motion controller for embedded omnidirectional mobile robots with three independent driving wheels equally spaced at 120 degrees from one another. Both ACO parameter autotuner and kinematic motion controller are integrated in one field-programmable gate array (FPGA) chip to efficiently construct an experimental mobile robot. The optimal parameters of the motion controller are obtained by minimizing the performance index using the proposed SoPC-based ACO computing method. These optimal parameters are then employed in the ACO-based embedded kinematic controller in order to obtain better performance for omnidirectional mobile robots to achieve trajectory tracking and stabilization. Experimental results are conducted to show the effectiveness and merit of the proposed intelligent ACO-based embedded controller for omnidirectional mobile robots. These results indicate that the proposed ACO-based embedded optimal controller outperforms the nonoptimal controllers and the conventional genetic algorithm (GA) optimal controllers.

In this paper, we present an optimal control approach using Linear Matrix Inequalities (LMIs) for trajectory tracking control of a three-wheeled omnidirectional mobile robot in the presence of external disturbances on the robot's actuators and noise in the robot's sensor measurements. First, a state-space representation of the omnidirectional robot dynamics is derived using a point-mass dynamic model. Then, we propose an LMI-based full-state feedback H <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">∞</sub> -optimal controller for the tracking problem. The robot's tracking performance with the H <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">∞</sub> -optimal controller is compared to its performance with a classical full-state feedback tracking controller in simulations with circular and bowtie-shaped reference trajectories. In order to evaluate our proposed controller in practice, we also implement the H <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">∞</sub> -optimal and classical controllers for these reference trajectories on a three-wheeled omnidirectional robot. The H <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">∞</sub> -optimal controller guarantees stabilization of the robot motion and attenuates the effects of frictional disturbances and measurement noise on the robot's tracking performance. Using the H <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">∞</sub> -optimal controller, the robot is able to track the reference trajectories with up to a 47.8% and 45.8% decrease in the maximum pose and twist errors, respectively, over a full cycle of the trajectory compared to the classical controller. The simulation and experimental results show that our LMI-based H <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">∞</sub> -optimal controller is robust to undesired effects of disturbances and noise on the dynamic behavior of the robot during trajectory tracking and can outperform the classical controller in attenuating their effects.

There are many types of controllers had been used to control Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) such as Proportional Integral Derivative (PID), Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR), state feedback linearization, integrator back-stepping, and Sliding-Mode Control (SMC). However, for PID and SMC in particular, it is difficult to determine the optimal control design parameters. The objective of this study is to design and develop a responsive motion control system with optimal parameters for an AUV. The contribution of this paper is in term of introducing a filter to smooth reference signal and proposing a brute forcing technique to find optimal controller parameters. The methodology starts with modeling the AUV, estimating the unknown parameters from a real AUV model, designing a control system based on PI and SMC methods, and finally optimizing the controller parameters. The controller design was onto controlling surge speed using PI, heading using SMC, and diving using SMC. Simulation-wise, the developed control system has an average value of 93.89 % of responsiveness to track desired trajectory while 82.33 % of responsiveness without using the smoothing filter. The tested input signals were unit step, ramp, parabolic, and sinusoidal.

When designing cluster-randomized trials (CRTs), one important consideration is determining the proper sample sizes across levels and treatment conditions to cost-efficiently achieve adequate statistical power. This consideration is usually addressed in an optimal design framework by leveraging the cost structures of sampling and optimizing the sampling ratios across treatment conditions and levels of the hierarchy. Traditionally, optimization is done through the first-order derivative approach by setting the first-order derivatives equal to zero to solve for the optimal design parameters. However, the first-order derivative method is incapable of properly handling the optimization task when statistical power formulas are complex, such as those for CRTs detecting mediation effects under the joint significance test. The current study proposes using an ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm to identify optimal allocations. We evaluate the algorithm’s performance for CRTs detecting main and mediation effects. The results show that the ACO algorithm can identify optimal sample allocations for CRTs investigating main effects with the same design efficiency as those identified through the first-order derivative method. Furthermore, it can efficiently identify optimal sample allocations for CRTs investigating mediation effects under the joint significance test. We have implemented the proposed methods in the R package odr.

Six degrees-of-freedom (DoF) robot manipulators are dynamically coupled and highly nonlinear multi-variable systems. Calculating the optimal joint angles from the operational space (i.e. inverse kinematics) and designing the optimal joint controller parameters are two important research topics. This paper proposes a 3-stage Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO)-based methodology for solving the inverse kinematics and optimizing the controller parameters. In the first stage, a PSO algorithm solves the inverse kinematics problem by minimizing a multi-objective cost function in the operational space (i.e. the error in the end-effector’s pose) and therefore finds the optimal joint angles. In the second stage, polynomial functions generate the desired trajectory between the initial and final poses in the joint space. Finally, a second PSO algorithm tunes six proportional-derivative (PD) controllers, one for each joint, to track the desired trajectory by minimizing another multi-objective cost function in the joint space. Two case studies, based on six DoF Puma 560, validate the performance of the proposed methodology. Simulation results show that the proposed 3-stage methodology provides fast and accurate results as the PSO algorithms are effective in solving the inverse kinematics problem and tuning the optimal PD parameters.

<;span class="title-case">t<;/span>he main objective of this paper is to optimize the parameters of sliding mode controller for DC motor. Ant Colony optimization (ACO) algorithms is used to obtain optimal parameters of Sliding Mode Controller (SMC), which is highly robust to the parameters variations. A model of DC motor is developed and simulated using MATLAB/SIMULINK by introducing external uncertainties and disturbances. The proposed speed control design uses gains generated by the Ant Colony optimization algorithm.

Energy management control strategy of hybrid electric vehicle has a great influence on the vehicle fuel consumption with electric motors adding to the traditional vehicle power system. As vehicle real driving cycles seem to be uncertain, the dynamic driving cycles will have an impact on control strategy’s energy‐saving effect. In order to better adapt the dynamic driving cycles, control strategy should have the ability to recognize the real‐time driving cycle and adaptively adjust to the corresponding off‐line optimal control parameters. In this paper, four types of representative driving cycles are constructed based on the actual vehicle operating data, and a fuzzy driving cycle recognition algorithm is proposed for online recognizing the type of actual driving cycle. Then, based on the equivalent fuel consumption minimization strategy, an ant colony optimization algorithm is utilized to search the optimal control parameters “charge and discharge equivalent factors” for each type of representative driving cycle. At last, the simulation experiments are conducted to verify the accuracy of the proposed fuzzy recognition algorithm and the validity of the designed control strategy optimization method.

This paper proposed an optimal design approach for the frequency-based synchronization (FSC) controller utilized in voltage source converter based high voltage direct current (VSC- HVDC) system under weak AC grid condition. A linearized small-signal dynamic model of VSC-HVDC station under FSC is developed and used to calculate the frequency-domain attributes related to the small-signal stability, for the objective function of the optimization problem of FSC parameters design. The particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is used in this paper to discover the optimal FSC controller parameters, which give desired damping for the oscillatory modes and desired values for decaying exponential modes. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is tested and validated on the time-domain simulation model of VSC-HVDC station in the PSCAD platform.

Bellman’s discrete dynamic programming is one of the most general approaches to solve optimal control problems. For discrete-time dynamical systems, it is, at least theoretically, capable to determine globally optimal control laws. In most practical cases, both state and control variables are subject to constraints. Due to the necessity for gridding of the range of both state and control variables in numerical implementations of dynamic programming, the computational effort grows exponentially with increasing system dimensions. This fact is well known as the curse of dimensionality. Furthermore, gridding of intervals representing uncertain system parameters is inevitable, if dynamic programming is used for the design of optimal controllers for systems with uncertainties. In this contribution, an interval arithmetic procedure for the design of optimal and robust controllers is presented. This procedure relies on the basic concepts of dynamic programming. Sophisticated techniques for the exclusion of non-optimal control strategies significantly reduce the computational burden. Since interval techniques can be applied to both continuous-time and discrete-time dynamical systems, the interval arithmetic optimization approach presented in this chapter is applicable to both cases. In addition, the inclusion of effects of uncertain parameters in the underlying optimality criteria is demonstrated. For that purpose, interval arithmetic routines for analysis and design of optimal and robust controllers have been developed. Details about computationally efficient implementations of interval arithmetic optimization procedures and numerical results for a mechanical positioning system with statedependent switchings between different dynamical models for viscous and Coulomb friction are summarized.

This paper explores lane changing trajectory planning and tracking control for intelligent vehicle on curved road. A novel arcs trajectory is planned for the desired lane changing trajectory. A kinematic controller and a dynamics controller are designed to implement the trajectory tracking control. Firstly, the kinematic model and dynamics model of intelligent vehicle with non-holonomic constraint are established. Secondly, two constraints of lane changing on curved road in practice (LCCP) are proposed. Thirdly, two arcs with same curvature are constructed for the desired lane changing trajectory. According to the geometrical characteristics of arcs trajectory, equations of desired state can be calculated. Finally, the backstepping method is employed to design a kinematic trajectory tracking controller. Then the sliding-mode dynamics controller is designed to ensure that the motion of the intelligent vehicle can follow the desired velocity generated by kinematic controller. The stability of control system is proved by Lyapunov theory. Computer simulation demonstrates that the desired arcs trajectory and state curves with B-spline optimization can meet the requirements of LCCP constraints and the proposed control schemes can make tracking errors to converge uniformly.

Summary form only given. This paper presents a computational approach for an offline measurement based design of an optimal damping controller using adaptive critics for a new type of FACTS device - the gate controlled series capacitor (GCSC). Remote measurements are provided to the controller to damp out system modes. The optimal controller is developed based on the heuristic dynamic programming (HDP) approach. Three multi-layer perceptron (MLP) neural networks are used in the design - the identifier/model network to identify the dynamics of the power system; the critic network to evaluate the performance of the damping controller; and the controller network to provide optimal damping. This measurement based technique provides an alternative to the classical linear model based optimal control design. The eigenvalue analysis of the closed loop system is performed with time domain responses using the Prony method. Analysis of the simulation results show potential of the HDP based optimal damping controller on a GCSC for enhancing the stability of the power system.

An ant colony optimization-based fuzzy predictive control approach for nonlinear processes

Chapter 8 - Optimal and Robust Control

In this paper the problem of trajectory tracking considers that the values of the control actions do not exceed a maximum allowable value and the zero convergence of tracking errors is demonstrated. The control law is based on a linear algebra approach. First, the desired trajectories of some state variables are determined by analyzing the conditions for a system of linear equations to have an exact solution. Therefore, the control signals are obtained by solving the system of linear equations. The optimal controller parameters are selected through nonlinear programming so as to prevent the saturation of the control actions. Experimental results are presented and discussed, demonstrating the controller's good performance. Finally, the performance of the proposed controller is compared with a fuzzy controller, and all the results are validated through experimental laboratory tests.

PID controllers are essential for industrial and academic studies. A robust performance and an easy design of PID controllers have gained them a wide spread usage and they have been utilized over 90 percent of industrial implementation. In recent years, researches have been conducted on fractional order PID controllers that generalize the PID controller. Fractional order allows precise modeling and improvement of performance. However, in the conventional fractional order controller design, controller parameters are often determined by trial and error, and the load of the designer increases. This paper proposes a design method of optimal fractional order controller parameters. The proposed method utilizes frequency responses to design an optimal fractional order controller. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified through the simulation result.