Position synchronised control of multiple robotic manipulators based on integral sliding mode

In this study, a new position synchronised control algorithm is developed for multiple robotic manipulator systems. In the merit of system synchronisation and integral sliding mode control, the proposed approach can stabilise position tracking of each robotic manipulator while coordinating its motion with the other manipulators. With the integral sliding mode, the proposed approach has insensitiveness against the lumped system uncertainty within the entire process of operation. Further, a perturbation estimator is proposed to reduce chattering effect. The corresponding stability analysis is presented to lay a foundation for theoretical understanding to the underlying issues as well as safely operating real systems. An illustrative example is bench tested to validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

An adaptive neural network switching control approach of robotic manipulators for trajectory tracking

In this paper, an adaptive neural network (NN) switching control strategy is proposed for the trajectory tracking problem of robotic manipulators. The proposed system comprises an adaptive switching neural controller and the associated robust compensation control law. Based on the Lyapunov stability theorem and average dwell-time approach, it is shown that the proposed control scheme can guarantee tracking performance of the robotic manipulators system, in the sense that all variables of the closed-loop system are bounded and the effect due to the external disturbance and approximate error of radical basis function (RBF) NNs on the tracking error can be converged to zero in an infinite time. Finally, simulation results on a two-link robotic manipulator show the feasibility and validity of the proposed control scheme.     

Direct adaptive control of robotic systems

This paper presents a new approach to adaptive motion control of an important class of robotic systems. The control schemes developed using this approach are very simple and computationally efficient since they do not require knowledge of either the mathematical model or the parameter values of the robotic system dynamics. It is shown that the control strategies are globally stable in the presence of bounded disturbances, and that the size of the tracking errors can be made arbitrarily small. The proposed controllers are very general and are implementable with a wide variety of robotic systems, including both open- and closed-kinematic-chain manipulators. Computer simulation results are given for a seven degree-of-freedom (DOF) Robotics Research Corporation Model K-1607 arm. These results demonstrate that accurate and robust trajectory tracking can be achieved by using the proposed schemes.     

Adaptive learning tracking control of robotic manipulators with uncertainties

An adaptive learning tracking control scheme is developed for robotic manipulators by a synthesis of adaptive control and learning control approaches. The proposed controller possesses both adaptive and learning properties and thereby is able to handle robotic systems with both time-varying periodic uncertainties and time invariant parameters. Theoretical proofs are established to show that proposed controllers ensure asymptotical tracking performance. The effectiveness of the proposed approaches is validated through extensive numerical simulation results.     

Distributed Force/Position Consensus Tracking of Networked Robotic Manipulators

In this paper, we address the tracking problem of distributed force/position for networked robotic manipulators in the presence of dynamic uncertainties. The end-effectors of the manipulators are in contact with flat compliant environment with uncertain stiffness and distance. The control objective is that the robotic followers track the convex hull spanned by the leaders under directed graphs. We propose a distributed adaptive force control scheme with an adaptive force observer to achieve the asymptotic force synchronization in constrained space, which also maintains a cascaded closed-loop structure separating the system into kinematic module and dynamic module. A decentralized stiffness updating law is also proposed to deal with the environment uncertainties. The convergence of tracking errors of force and position is proved using Lyapunov stability theory and input-output stability analysis tool. Finally, simulations are performed to show effectiveness of the theoretical approach.      

Neural network-based adaptive controller design of roboticmanipulators with an observer

A neural network (NN)-based adaptive controller with an observer is proposed for the trajectory tracking of robotic manipulators with unknown dynamics nonlinearities. It is assumed that the robotic manipulator has only joint angle position measurements. A linear observer is used to estimate the robot joint angle velocity, while NNs are employed to further improve the control performance of the controlled system through approximating the modified robot dynamics function. The adaptive controller for robots with an observer can guarantee the uniform ultimate bounds of the tracking errors and the observer errors as well as the bounds of the NN weights. For performance comparisons, the conventional adaptive algorithm with an observer using linearity in parameters of the robot dynamics is also developed in the same control framework as the NN approach for online approximating unknown nonlinearities of the robot dynamics. Main theoretical results for designing such an observer-based adaptive controller with the NN approach using multilayer NNs with sigmoidal activation functions, as well as with the conventional adaptive approach using linearity in parameters of the robot dynamics are given. The performance comparisons between the NN approach and the conventional adaptation approach with an observer is carried out to show the advantages of the proposed control approaches through simulation studies     

考虑柔性关节的机械臂自适应运动控制策略研究

具有柔性关节的轻型机械臂因其自重轻、响应迅速、操作灵活等优点,取得了广泛应用;针对具有柔性关节的机械臂系统的关节空间轨迹跟踪控制系统动力学参数不精确的问题,提出一种结合滑模变结构设计的自适应控制器算法;通过自适应控制的思想对系统动力学参数进行在线辨识,并采用Lyapunov方法证明了闭环系统的稳定性;仿真结果表明,该控制策略保证了机械臂系统对期望轨迹的快速跟踪,具有良好的跟踪精度,系统具有稳定性。     

A new terminal sliding mode control for robotic manipulators

In this study, a new terminal sliding mode control approach is developed for robotic manipulators based on finite-time stability theory and differential inequality principle. The corresponding stability analysis is presented to lay a foundation for theoretical understanding to the underlying design issue as well as safe operation for real system. An illustrative example of a two-link rigid robotic manipulator is presented to validate effectiveness of the proposed approach.     

Comments on ‘A new terminal sliding mode control for robotic manipulators’

In this article, we give some comments on the article ‘A new terminal sliding mode control for robotic manipulators’. The article presents a new terminal sliding mode control approach for global finite-time tracking of robotic manipulators. We point out a serious error occurred through the article, leading to the ineffectiveness of the proposed approach. A correction is proposed. Comparisons are presented.     

Combined direct and indirect adaptive control of robot manipulators using multiple models

A novel methodology is proposed for the adaptive control of rigid robotic manipulators. The proposed method utilizes multiple adaptive models for the identification and control of the manipulator. The present study is an extension of our previous work which utilized an indirect adaptive control approach with multiple models for better transient performance. The proposed scheme uses a composite approach where both prediction and tracking errors are used in a combined direct and indirect adaptive control framework. Simulation results are given to demonstrate the efficient use of the methodology.     

On the adaptive control of robot manipulators with velocity observers

To achieve accurate tracking control of robot manipulators many schemes have been proposed. A common approach is based on adaptive control techniques, which guarantee trajectory tracking under the assumption that the robot model structure is perfectly known and linear in the unknown parameters, while joint velocities are available. Despite tracking errors tend to zero, parameter errors do not unless some persistent excitation condition is fulfilled. There are few works dealing with velocity observation in conjunction with adaptive laws. In this note, an adaptive control/observer scheme is proposed for tracking position of robot manipulators. It is shown that tracking and observation errors are ultimately bounded, with the characteristic that when a persistent excitation condition is matched then they, as well as the parameter errors, tend to zero. Simulation results are in good agreement with the developed theory.     

Intelligent adaptive model-based control of robotic dynamic systems with a hybrid fuzzy-neural approach

We describe in this paper a new method for adaptive model-based control of robotic dynamic systems using a new hybrid fuzzy-neural approach. Intelligent control of robotic systems is a difficult problem because the dynamics of these systems is highly nonlinear. We describe an intelligent system for controlling robot manipulators to illustrate our fuzzy-neural hybrid approach for adaptive control. We use a new fuzzy inference system for reasoning with multiple differential equations for model selection based on the relevant parameters for the problem. In this case, the fractal dimension of a time series of measured values of the variables is used as a selection parameter. We use neural networks for identification and control of robotic dynamic systems. We also compare our hybrid fuzzy-neural approach with conventional fuzzy control to show the advantages of the proposed method for control.     

神经网络自适应滑模控制的不确定机器人轨迹跟踪控制

提出一种针对机器人跟踪控制的神经网络自适应滑模控制策略。该控制方案将神经网络的非线性映射能力与滑模变结构和自适应控制相结合。对于机器人中不确定项,通过RBF网络分别进行自适应补偿,并通过滑模变结构控制器和自适应控制器消除逼近误差。同时基于Lyapunov理论保证机器手轨迹跟踪误差渐进收敛于零。仿真结果表明了该方法的优越性和有效性。     

Adaptive tracking control of rigid manipulators using only position measurements

This article presents a new approach to trajectory tracking control of uncertain rigid manipulators using only position measurements. The proposed control strategy is an adaptive scheme that is very general and computationally efficient, requires virtually no information regarding the manipulator dynamic model, and is implementable without calculation of the robot inverse dynamics or inverse kinematic transformations. It is shown that the controller ensures semiglobal uniform boundedness of all signals in the presence of bounded disturbances, and that the ultimate size of the tracking errors can be made arbitrarily small. Additionally, it is demonstrated that the proposed strategy can be used as the basis for developing controllers for “cascaded” robotic systems, such as manipulators with significant actuator dynamics or joint flexibility. The efficacy of this approach to manipulator control is illustrated through both computer simulations and hardware experiments. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Dynamic modelling and adaptive robust tracking control of a space robot with two-link flexible manipulators under unknown disturbances

In this paper, both the closed-form dynamics and adaptive robust tracking control of a space robot with two-link flexible manipulators under unknown disturbances are developed. The dynamic model of the system is described with assumed modes approach and Lagrangian method. The flexible manipulators are represented as Euler–Bernoulli beams. Based on singular perturbation technique, the displacements/joint angles and flexible modes are modelled as slow and fast variables, respectively. A sliding mode control is designed for trajectories tracking of the slow subsystem under unknown but bounded disturbances, and an adaptive sliding mode control is derived for slow subsystem under unknown slowly time-varying disturbances. An optimal linear quadratic regulator method is proposed for the fast subsystem to damp out the vibrations of the flexible manipulators. Theoretical analysis validates the stability of the proposed composite controller. Numerical simulation results demonstrate the performance of the closed-loop flexible space robot system.     

An iterative learning scheme for motion control of robots using neural networks: A case study

In this paper, an iterative learning controller using neural networks has been studied for the motion control of robotic manipulators. Simulations of a two-link robot have demonstrated that the proposed control scheme for robotic manipulators can greatly reduce tracking errors after a few trials. Our modification of the original back-propagation algorithm is employed in the neural network, resulting in a much faster learning rate. The results of simulation have also shown that the proposed iterative learning controller has a faster rate of convergence and better robustness.     

Obituary

A model-based decentralized adaptive controller is proposed for multiple manipulators in a class of co-operations called holonomic co-operations, in which the manipulators are holonomically constrained. In this controller we calculate the control input and estimate unknown robotic parameters in individual state spaces of the manipulators instead of that of the whole system. Consequently, no coordinator exists in the system and the control architecture is decentralized. The model-based adaptive algorithm is used to estimate the unknown or uncertain parameters. It is proven that a Lyapunov function guarantees asymptotic convergence of tracking errors of both the trajectory and interactive force among the manipulators. We also discuss issues regarding communication among the robots according to motion constraints associated with the co-operation. Finally, the validity and performance of the proposed method are verified by simulations on two six-DOF manipulators.     

Adaptive terminal sliding mode control for rigid robotic manipulators

In order to apply the terminal sliding mode control to robot manipulators, prior knowledge of the exact upper bound of parameter uncertainties, and external disturbances is necessary. However, this bound will not be easily determined because of the complexity and unpredictability of the structure of uncertainties in the dynamics of the robot. To resolve this problem in robot control, we propose a new robust adaptive terminal sliding mode control for tracking problems in robotic manipulators. By applying this adaptive controller, prior knowledge is not required because the controller is able to estimate the upper bound of uncertainties and disturbances. Also, the proposed controller can eliminate the chattering effect without losing the robustness property. The stability of the control algorithm can be easily verified by using Lyapunov theory. The proposed controller is tested in simulation on a two-degree-of-freedom robot to prove its effectiveness.     

A robust adaptive sliding-mode control for rigid robotic manipulators with arbitrary bounded input disturbances

In this paper, a robust adaptive sliding-mode control scheme for rigid robotic manipulators with arbitrary bounded input disturbances is proposed. It is shown that the prior knowledge on the upper bound of the norm of the input disturbance vector is not required in the sliding-mode controller design. An adaptive mechanism is introduced to estimate the upper bound of the norm of the input disturbance vector. The estimate is then used as a controller gain parameter to guarantee that the output tracking error asymptotically converges to zero and strong robustness with respect to bounded input disturbances can be obtained. A simulation example is given in support of the proposed control scheme.     

Adaptive backstepping control for an n-degree of freedom robotic manipulator based on combined state augmentation

The aim of this paper is to improve the tracking performance of a robotic manipulator by designing an adaptive controller and implementing it on the system. The proposed controller guarantees the system stability as well as good tracking performance in existence of nonlinearity and parameter uncertainties. The requirement to decrease the system response overshoot and steady state error as well as increasing speed of tracking for manipulators is essential to many manufacturers. To this mean, in this paper, the tracking error equations for an n-DOF manipulator are derived and the response characteristics are improved by augmenting a new state to the system equations. The stability of the closed-loop system is guaranteed based on the Lyapunov theory via backstepping control approach. The robotic manipulator model contains parametric uncertainties and many of the parameter values are unknown. To solve the problem, an adaption law is proposed via adaptive backstepping mechanism. Different experiments are carried out for a 2-DOF manipulator to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach and the results are compared with four of the recently revealed researches on control. Experimental results present the superiority of the state augmented adaptive backstepping in tracking the desired joint angles. Moreover, in order to present the industrial application of the proposed control method, it is simulated for a large industrial Scara manipulator.