考虑空间系绳释放特性的空间绳系机器人协调耦合控制

针对空间绳系机器人的轨迹跟踪控制问题,提出考虑系绳释放特性的跟踪轨迹协调控制方法.该方法考虑系绳释放的动力学特性,在最优轨迹规划过程中将系绳释放速度作为一个规划量,将系绳释放机构的转矩作为一个控制输入,结合操作机器人上推力器控制输入设计协调耦合位姿控制器.该方法的优点是控制输入易于施加,可工程实现系绳协调控制.仿真结果表明,操作机器人能精确跟踪最优轨迹,末端误差为±0.1 m,且能有效跟踪期望姿态,精度在±0.2°.     

Postcapture robust nonlinear control for tethered space robot with constraints on actuator and velocity of space tether

Stabilization control is an essential mission for the tethered space robot‐target combination during the postcapture phase of tethered space robot (TSR). In this paper, the stabilization problem of such a tumbling combination is studied. With the consideration of the space tether and the attitude of the TSR's gripper, the dynamic model of the combination is first derived using Lagrange method. Then a robust nonlinear controller for the combination is proposed based on the backstepping control method. Considering the constraint on the velocity of the space tether, command filter method is utilized to guarantee the velocity of the space tether within a permitted range. A feedback term is designed to compensate the saturation of the thruster. Moreover, an adaptive law is designed to estimate the disturbance of parameter uncertainties and this disturbance is compensated in the proposed controller. Numerical simulations suggest that the proposed robust controller can realize the orbit and attitude stabilization of the combination; besides, the velocity of the space tether is effectively constrained and the parameter uncertainties of the combination can be compensated via the adaptive law. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Suboptimal on Average Satellite Attitude Control in the Presence of Discrete Inaccurate Measurements

The problem of the active stabilization of the oscillations of an artificial satellite by thrusters is considered. The satellite moves in a circular orbit and oscillates around the center of mass in the plane of the orbit. Relay control is used to minimize fuel consumption. The state of the plant is not known with certainty, but it is refined by discrete inaccurate measurements. Therefore, the problem of the optimal on average control of a bundle of trajectories is investigated. The stability error is characterized by the average value of the energy integral. Taking into account the practical accuracy of executing the thruster firing and shutdown commands, the constrained minimization problem to be solved becomes discrete. The optimal control of one trajectory is used to control the bundle. This approach based on the principle of separation leads to the suboptimal control of the bundle, which, however, proves to be acceptable in practice.     

带有饱和受限的挠性卫星变结构姿态容错控制

针对挠性卫星在飞行过程中存在推力器故障、控制输入饱和受限以及外部干扰的姿态控制问题,提出了一类基于变结构控制的鲁棒容错控制设计方法.该设计在继承变结构控制的优点的同时,显式地引入推力器输出的饱和幅值,以确保控制输出在其要求界的范围内.同时,充分利用星上推力器的硬件冗余以实现对部分推力器故障的容错,这种思想的引入使得所设计的控制器对故障具有很强的自适应能力,而且对设计者而言,推力器故障信息不需要进行在线的检测和分离.最后,将该控制器应用于某型卫星姿态调节控制,仿真结果表明该控制器能有效地抑制外部干扰、挠性结构的振动和推力器故障的约束,在实现姿态调节的同时,保证其控制输出满足饱和受限界的要求,具有较好的控制性能.     

Development of dam inspection robot with negative pressure effect plate

This paper describes the development of an underwater robot that performs visual inspection while making mechanical contact with a dam surface by a pulling force generated from thrusters with negative pressure effect plates. In general, small and lightweight remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) have low‐power thrusters. Their positioning performance is inferior with respect to external disturbances. Moreover, it is difficult for untrained operators to control the ROV position to check and inspect dams visually. A negative pressure effect plate attached to a thruster produces negative pressure that maintains mechanical contact between the robot and a dam wall surface and ensures stable robot motion on a dam surface to acquire clear continuous images. As described herein, we theoretically investigate the negative pressure effect plate characteristics and experimentally measure the force generated by the pressure difference. Results show that the force of a thruster with the effect plate is five times greater than the nominal thrust force provided by the thruster alone. Based on those results, we designed and developed the underwater robot with the negative pressure effect plates for dam inspection. Moreover, we conducted an experiment in a water tank and a field test at Shorenji Dam, Mie‐prefecture, Japan. The experimentally obtained results indicated that the negative pressure effective plate is effective at generating sufficient force and at realizing stable robot motion on the dam surface. Results demonstrate that the developed robot acquired clear images of the dam surface continuously with no sophisticated operator or controller.     

Robot Position/Force Control in Unknown Environment Using Hybrid Reinforcement Learning

Abstract

Robot position/force control provides an interaction scheme between the robot and the environment. When the environment is unknown, learning algorithms are needed. But, the learning space and learning time are big. To balance the learning accuracy and the learning time, we propose a hybrid reinforcement learning method, which can be in both discrete and continuous domains. The discrete-time learning has poor learning accuracy and less learning time. The continuous-time learning is slow but has better learning precision. This hybrid reinforcement learning learns the optimal contact force, meanwhile it minimizes the position error in the unknown environment. Convergence of the proposed learning algorithm is proven. Real-time experiments are carried out using the pan and tilt robot and the force/torque sensor.     

In-orbit thruster calibration techniques and experiment results with UoSAT-12

In this paper, two practical thrusters calibration approaches are proposed, discussed and evaluated through in-orbit flight tests. In the single thruster pulse method, one thruster is commanded to fire for a fixed period to produce a pulsed external torque disturbance. Reaction wheels are used to stabilize the satellite subject to the thruster firings. Magnetorquer coils are switched off during the experiment to reduce the external magnetic disturbances. A preliminary test without thruster firing is used to record the unmodelled external disturbances. The resulting satellite attitude responses and reaction wheel status subject to the thruster firings are recorded for calibration analyses. A batch filter algorithm is developed to estimate the thruster torque coefficients from the recorded experimental data. In the autonomous method, a repetitive torque disturbance (by using a reaction wheel) is exerted to the stabilized satellite, the cold-gas thrusters are then applied in an on-board control system to stabilize the satellite attitude. By recording the known attitude disturbances and the thruster controller outputs, a recursive least-squares algorithm is used to process the recorded data and to estimate the thruster parameters. Both simulation and in-orbit test results are presented to evaluate the performance and design objectives. The in-orbit test results converge to the same values using the two different approaches.     

Development of a dual-shaft propeller thruster equipped with rotational speed sensor for UVMS control

Majority of underwater robots utilize single propeller thrusters for navigation. A disadvantage of using a single-shaft propeller thruster is that the thrust force generated from a single propeller for reverse and forward thrust is asymmetric due to the disturbed flow caused by the thruster’s body which may reduce thruster efficiency. Moreover, measurement procedures to precisely calculate propeller’s rotation speed were also not available. To address these problems, this paper proposes a dual-shaft magnetic coupling-driven propeller thruster for underwater robot, equipped with sensors for measuring propeller’s rotational speed. Numerical studies and experimental results on the position and orientation control of the proposed thruster are presented. Detail comparison of the rotational speed, thrust force and duty ratio between numerical calculation and actual experimental measurement results show the effectiveness of the proposed thruster. This paper also demonstrated that by using the proposed thruster, the control performance of an underwater robot can be improved significantly compared to commercially available thruster. The ability to determine propeller rotation directions is also a major advantage of this work.     

空间机器人目标捕获过程中的载体姿态扰动优化

针对自由飘浮空间机器人在捕获目标的过程中会对其载体姿态产生扰动的问题,提出了一种新的笛卡儿轨迹参数化方法.建立了反映载体姿态变化的日标函数,该函数既可以限制机器人关节角的运动范围,也可以避免动力学奇异的影响.利用遗传算法进行目标函数的优化,有效降低了空间机器人末端执行器在跟踪笛卡儿轨迹时对载体姿态的影响.仿真结果验证了...     

Trajectory Tracking for Underwater Swimming Manipulators using a Super Twisting Algorithm

The underwater swimming manipulator (USM) is a snake‐like, multi‐articulated, underwater robot that is equipped with thrusters. One of the main purposes of the USM is to act like an underwater floating base manipulator. As such, it is essential to achieve good station‐keeping and trajectory tracking performance for the USM by using the thrusters and by using the joints to attain the desired position and orientation of the head and tail of the USM. In this ‘paper, we propose a sliding mode control (SMC) law, specifically the super‐twisting algorithm with adaptive gains, for the trajectory tracking of the USM's centre of mass. A higher‐order sliding mode observer is proposed for state estimation. Furthermore, we show the ultimate boundedness of the tracking errors. We demonstrate the applicability of the proposed control law and show that it leads to better performance than a linear PD‐controller.     

Adaptive multi-mode switching strategy for the spherical underwater robot with hybrid thrusters

The conventional autonomous cruise and tracking system cannot transition and change its motion mode according to the underwater environment during operation, so it is of great significance to study the multi-mode switching of cruise control for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs). In this paper, a Multi-Mode Adaptive Switching (MMAS) strategy for the Spherical Underwater Robot with Hybrid Thruster (HPSUR) was proposed, which provided the possibility for the robot to choose optimal control mode according to the unpredictable operating environment. Then, the dynamic and force of the hybrid thruster are analyzed to improve the accuracy of multi-mode switching, and the MMAS strategy is developed linking the attitude adjustment and switching problems. Furthermore, a series of multi-mode switching experiments were conducted using water-jet mode, propeller mode and hybrid mode. Finally, the experimental result was discussed, which verified the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed MMAS strategy. The proposed control strategy has a certain reference value for the multi-mode switching of propulsion devices.     

Mobile robot path planning and tracking using simulated annealing and fuzzy logic control

This article describes the development and implementation of an automatic controller for path planning and navigation of an autonomous mobile robot using simulated annealing and fuzzy logic. The simulated annealing algorithm was used to obtain a collision-free optimal trajectory among fixed polygonal obstacles. C-space was used to represent the working space and B-spline curves were used to represent the trajectories. The trajectory tracking was performed with a fuzzy logic algorithm. A detailed explanation of the algorithm is given. The objectives of the control algorithm were to track the planned trajectory and to avoid collision with moving obstacles. Simulation and implementation results are shown. A Nomadic 200 mobile robot was used to perform the experiments.     

追踪器本体坐标系下航天器姿轨一体化控制律设计

在追踪航天器本体坐标系下, 联合相对轨道动力学模型和四元素姿态动力学模型, 引入推进器配置矩阵, 建立六自由度姿态和轨道一体化模型. 该模型避免了控制输入向追踪器本体坐标系下的转换. 在此基础上, 采用输入-状态(ISS) 稳定性原理, 在干扰输入信息完全未知的情况下, 设计了非线性鲁棒一体化控制律. 该控制律实现了对椭圆轨道上目标航天器的扰动抑制和跟踪, 具有较好的鲁棒性和跟踪性. 最后, 针对运行在椭圆轨道上的目标给出仿真结果, 表明了所提出的一体化控制律的可行性和有效性.

     

自由漂浮空间机器人末端轨迹优化自适应控制

惯性参数不确定情况下的自由漂浮空间机器人(FFSR)轨迹跟踪控制是当前FFSR自主控制研究的重点与难点之一.针对该问题,提出一种FFSR末端轨迹优化自适应跟踪控制方法.该方法首先基于离散状态依赖黎卡提方程(DSDRE),设计两级DSDRE优化跟踪控制器,然后在控制器输出基础上,通过求解有约束条件下的非线性优化问题实现FFSR惯性参数的辨识,进而根据辨识结果调整控制器相关参数,实现FFSR末端轨迹的优化自适应跟踪控制.最后,采用平面两连杆FFSR模型进行仿真,验证了所提出方法的有效性.     

Thruster fault-tolerant control of a hovering AUV with four horizontal and two vertical thrusters

This paper deals with the motion control of a hovering autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) with four horizontal and two vertical thrusters, when one or more thrusters are completely malfunctioned. Three thruster fault cases are considered: one horizontal thruster is faulty; two horizontal thrusters are faulty; and one vertical thruster is faulty. Through a series of simulations and an experiment, it is validated that the AUV can track a planned path in a 3-D space with minimally three thrusters (two are horizontal ones); however, some cases require the changes of the vehicle’s preferred direction of motion and its movement manner. Additionally, when the number of active horizontal thrusters is less than the required degree-of-freedom, a continuous state feedback control law does not exist due to the non-holonomic constraint. This paper highlights that the hovering AUV can overcome the non-holonomic constraint if using the feature that their translational and rotational motions can be controlled independently.     

Motion and force control with a nonlinear force error filter for underwater vehicle-manipulator systems

This paper deals with a control scheme for autonomous underwater robots equipped with manipulators. Several motion and force controllers have been developed. Most of them were designed in disregard of the dynamics of marine thrusters to develop a controller with a simple structure. However, the robot body propelled by thrusters generally has a considerably slower time response than the manipulator driven by electrical motors. Therefore, it may be difficult to construct a high-gain feedback control system to achieve a good control performance, because the high gain may excite the slow thruster dynamics ignored in the controller design, and the excitation will degrade the control performance. In this paper, we develop a motion and force controller for mathematical models with the dynamics of thrusters. It includes a nonlinear force error filter which allows us to construct a stable motion and force control system. To investigate its control performance, we conducted numerical simulations for comparing the proposed control scheme with an existing control scheme designed in disregard of the thruster dynamics. Simulation results demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed controller.     

输入约束不确定系统的点对点迭代学习控制与优化

为解决工业过程中机械臂等特殊重复运行系统的输出在有限时间内无需实现全轨迹跟踪,仅需跟踪期望轨迹上某些特殊关键点的控制问题,针对线性时不变离散系统提出一种基于范数最优的点对点迭代学习控制算法.通过输入输出时间序列矩阵模型变换构建综合性多目标点性能指标函数,求解二次型最优解得到优化迭代学习控制律,同时给出模型标称和不确定情...     

An experimental investigation into the fault-tolerant control of an autonomous underwater vehicle

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are expected to function in an unstructured underwater environment. One of the main requirements for effective operation in such an environment is to accommodate faults. In this paper, we have investigated a new approach to the allocation of thruster forces of an autonomous underwater vehicle under thruster faults. Generally, an AUV is equipped with more thrusters than what is minimally required to produce the desired motion. The proposed framework exploits the excess number of thrusters to accommodate thruster faults during operation. First, a redundancy resolution scheme is presented that considers the presence of excess number of thrusters along with any thruster faults and determines the reference thruster forces to produce the desired motion. These reference thruster forces are then utilized in the thruster controller to generate the required motion. This approach resolves the thruster redundancy in the Cartesian space and allows the AUV to track the task-space trajectories with asymptotic reduction of the task-space errors. Results from actual underwater experiments are provided to demonstrate the viability of the proposed scheme.     

Decentralized Coordinated Tracking with Mixed Discrete–Continuous Decisions

In this paper, we study the problem of dynamically positioning a team of mobile robots for target tracking. We treat the coordination of mobile robots for target tracking as a joint team optimization to minimize uncertainty in target state estimates over a fixed horizon. The optimization is inherently a function of both the positioning of robots in continuous space and the assignment of robots to targets in discrete space. Thus, the robot team must make decisions over discrete and continuous variables. In contrast to methods that decouple target assignments and robot positioning, our approach avoids the strong assumption that a robot's utility for observing a target is independent of other robots’ observations. We formulate the optimization as a mixed integer nonlinear program and apply integer relaxation to develop an approximate solution in decentralized form. We demonstrate our coordinated multirobot tracking algorithm both in simulation and using a pair of mobile robotic sensor platforms to track moving pedestrians. Our results show that coupling target assignment and robot positioning realizes coordinated behaviors that are not possible with decoupled methods.     

基于速度空间的移动机器人同时避障和轨迹跟踪方法

针对有障碍物环境下非完整轮式 移动机器人的轨迹跟踪问题,提出一种基于速度空间的同时避障和轨迹跟踪方法(VSTTM).首先,根据机器人 的动力学特性构建速度空间,得到由速度元组构成的控制集;然后,构造目标函数并对各控制量进行 评价,其中跟踪误差评价函数评估跟踪效果,碰撞检测函数检测是否发生碰撞,终端状态惩罚项保证 算法的稳定性;最后,通过优化过程找到最优的无碰控制量.仿真结果表明了所提出方法的有效性.