Robust adaptive controller design for underactuated mechanical systems

Adaptive robust control for fuzzy underactuated mechanical systems: A Stackelberg game-theoretic optimization approach

An open loop vibrational control for underactuated mechanical systems with amplitude and frequency modulation is investigated. Since there is no direct external input to an unactuated joint, the dynamic coupling between the actuated and unactuated joint is utilized for controlling the unactuated joint. Feedback linearization has been performed to incorporate fully the known nonlinearities of the underactuated system considered. The actuated joints are firstly positioned to their desired locations, and then periodic oscillatory inputs are applied to the actuated joints to move the remaining unactuated joints to their target positions. The amplitudes and frequencies of the vibrations introduced are determined through the averaging analysis. A systematic way of obtaining an averaged system for the underactuated system via a coordinate transformation is developed. A manipulator in the space where no gravitation exists can be vibrationally controlled in the event of actuator failure. A control design example of a 2R planar manipulator with a free joint with no brake is provided.

Self-excited periodic motion in underactuated mechanical systems using two-fuzzy inference system

Underactuated systems are mechanical systems with fewer actuators than the system degrees of freedom, i.e., some degrees of freedom are not directly driven by actuators. Many benchmark underactuated systems have been developed to study the nature of underactuated dynamics and their possible controller designs. Unlike fully actuated systems where many control strategies are available for an entire class of systems, there are few results applicable to even a small class of underactuated mechanical systems. In this paper, an Adaptive Fuzzy Sliding Mode Controller (AFSMC) is proposed in order to stabilize an inverted pendulum mounted on a ball system, also known as ballbot; this latter an interesting underactuated mechanical system for which the controller designs are a pending task, i.e. the performance for different control strategies could be explored. The performance of our proposal is verified via numerical simulation, showing the robustness against time-varying uncertainties and disturbances.

In this work, first we estimate all the system’s state vector, with guarantied precision, for a category of second order underactuated mechanical systems (UMS), exploiting the triangular observer (TO) model that suits to the structure of these systems. Then we propose a sliding mode controller (SMC). The latter uses the estimated states given by the observer. The underactuated system is decomposed into two subsystems, where the sliding surface is constructed in two levels for each subsystem. The proposed controller guaranties the tracking performances, with minimization of chattering phenomenon, due to the constructed observer, even for system with uncertainties. Simulation results show the effectiveness of this strategy of control.

In this paper we use a nonholonomic affine connection formulation to study an optimal control problem for a class of nonholonomic, under-actuated mechanical systems. The class of nonholonomic systems we study in this paper includes, in particular, wheeled-type vehicles, which are important for many robotic locomotion systems. We illustrate our ideas by considering a simple example on a three-dimensional manifold

Underactuated mechanical systems are frequently encountered in several industrial and real-world applications such as robotic manipulators with elastic components, aerospace vehicles, marine vessels, and overhead container cranes. The design of accurate controllers for this kind of mechanical system can become very challenging, especially if a high level of uncertainty is involved. In this paper, an adaptive fuzzy inference system is combined with a sliding mode controller in order to enhance the control performance of uncertain underactuated mechanical systems. The proposed scheme can deal with a large class of multiple-input–multiple-output underactuated systems subject to parameter uncertainties, unmodeled dynamics, and external disturbances. The convergence properties of the resulting intelligent controller are proved by means of a Lyapunov-like stability analysis. Experimental results obtained with an overhead container crane demonstrate not only the feasibility of the proposed scheme, but also its improved efficacy for both stabilization and trajectory tracking problems.

ABSTRACTRobust control of under-actuated mechanical systems (UMSs) with model uncertainty is still a challenging problem. For UMSs, the model parametric uncertainties make it difficult to precisely calculate the isolated equilibrium point corresponding to a fixed input. Without an accurate destination state, many set-point control methods cannot eliminate the positioning errors. An improved sliding mode control (ISMC) method is proposed to solve the robust control problem for a class of UMSs with model uncertainty and input disturbance. A balance variable is introduced in the sliding surface design to compensate for the disturbance caused by the inaccurate destination state, and the ISMC method is proposed to make the system state reach the sliding surface in finite time. Linear matrix inequality approach and particle swarm optimisation algorithm are applied to design the sliding mode surface parameters. The simulation results on an UMS are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

Model-Following Control of Nonlinear Systems based on Virtual Constraints

This paper addresses the problem of global robust fault accommodation tracking for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems with unknown powers and actuator faults. It is assumed that the powers of the concerned system are unknown time-varying functions, all system nonlinearities are unknown, and unknown actuator faults depend on the time-varying power of a control input. A fault accommodation state-feedback controller is explicitly constructed based on the nonlinear error transformation technique using time-varying performance functions. Global tracking with the preselected performance bounds is established in the presence of unknown time-varying powers and unexpected actuator faults. Different from the previous results dealing with the problem of unknown time-varying powers, the proposed tracking strategy does not require the knowledge of the bounds of the time-varying powers and the nonlinear bounding functions of system nonlinearities. An underactuated mechanical system is simulated to validate the effectiveness of the proposed theoretical approach.

Stabilization of underactuated mechanical systems is one of the fundamental benchmark problem in the field of control theory. In this article, a hierarchical sliding mode control based on state-dependent switching gain is proposed for stabilization of underactuated mechanical systems. This controller is based on the so called first-level and second-level sliding surfaces. The asymptotic stability of these surfaces is proved by the Lyapunov stability theory. The proposed control technique is applied to two nonlinear underactuated mechanical systems and its feasibility is verified by numerical simulation. The proposed controller efficiently tackles the bounded external disturbance and shows robust performance. The convergence rate of the proposed controller is much faster as compared with the conventional decoupled sliding mode control and the integral sliding mode control.

Sliding mode control has been shown to be a robust and effective control approach for stabilization of nonlinear systems. However the dynamic performance of the controller is a complex function of the system parameters, which is often uncertain or partially known. This paper presents an adaptive fuzzy sliding mode control for a class of underactuated nonlinear mechanical systems. An adaptive fuzzy system is used to approximate the uncertain parts of the underactuated system. The adaptive law is designed based on the Lyapunov method. The proof for the stability and the convergence of the system is presented. Robust performance of the adaptive fuzzy sliding mode control is illustrated using a gantry crane system. Simulation results demonstrate that the system output can track the reference signal in the presence of modelling uncertainties, external disturbances and parameter variation.

It is shown that the flat output of the single input underactuated mechanical system can be obtained by finding a smooth output function such that the system has relative degree equals to the dimension of the state space. Assuming the flat output of an underactuated system can be solved explicitly, an optimization method is proposed for the motion planning of the differentially flat underactuated mechanical systems by constructing a shape adjustable curve with satisfying specific boundary conditions in flat output space. The inertia wheel pendulum is used to verify the proposed optimization method and some numerical simulation results are included.

This paper aims to discuss the design and implementation of automatic control system for chemical production line based on PLC. With the rapid development of chemical industry and the intensification of market competition, it has become an important demand for chemical enterprises to improve production efficiency, ensure product quality and realize automation and intelligence of production process. Firstly, this paper analyzes the characteristics and requirements of chemical production line, as well as the requirements and objectives of automatic control system. Then, the overall architecture design, hardware design, software design, system implementation and testing process of the automatic control system of chemical production line based on PLC are described in detail. The feasibility and effectiveness of the system are verified by the analysis of practical application cases. The research results show that the automatic control system of chemical production line based on PLC can significantly improve production efficiency, reduce production costs, ensure product quality and enhance the market competitiveness of chemical enterprises. The research in this paper provides new ideas and methods for the design and implementation of automatic control system in chemical industry.

This paper is concerned with the development of fully Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) for deep ocean scientific and commercial applications. Specifically, it is regarding the design of automatic feedback control systems for AUV attitude control. The design method used in this paper formulates the AUV attitude control problem within the framework of the Optimal Control Theory. This approach determines an optimal control law that keeps the state of a dynamic system near a constant reference state while minimizing a quadratic cost functional. This study has developed four optimal control laws based on different performance criteria. First, the standard Linear Quadratic performance index was used to obtain a baseline control design. The LQR control law has been found to be undesirable because it resulted in a closed-loop system with fast and slow dynamics. In order to place the closed-loop eigenvalues close to each other, a pole placement algorithm has been used in connection with the LQR performance index. Two control laws have been designed based on this approach. Finally, a fourth design has been obtained by using a Hilbert Space Norm (also known as H/sub 2/ Norm or Root-Mean-Square) performance index. The main reason for designing a control law based on H/sub 2/ Norm performance index was to minimize the fuel consumption of the AUV for longer endurance. The stability and performance characteristics of the four optimal control laws have been analyzed via computer simulation and frequency response studies. All the closed-loop AUV systems exhibited overdamped response without any overshoot. Because the yaw and pitch channels have right hand zeros indicating the controllers have finite gain margins in these two channels. Hence, stability robustness of the AUV controllers can not be ignored and must be the subject of more detailed investigation in the future.