Vibration suppression of a flexible robot manipulator with a lightweight piezo-composite actuator

The increasing demand for high-speed performance and low energy consumption has necessitated the design of lightweight mechanical systems. The active vibration suppression of a flexible manipulator is important in many engineering applications, such as robot manipulators and high-speed flexible mechanisms, because the flexibility of lightweight manipulators induces a vibration problem. Frequently, the optimal parameters determined for a certain control algorithm might not cover a wide range of operating conditions. Hence, we have proposed and developed a lookup table control method for a flexible manipulator that can tune itself to optimal parameters on the basis of the initial maximum responses of the controlled system and a genetic algorithm. The genetic algorithm is used to search for optimal parameters with regard to positive position feedback and thereby minimizes the objective functions determined from the initial maximum responses. Our lookup table, which has the optimal parameters of the positive position feedback as a function of the initial maximum responses, can be used in a real-time control algorithm. Recommended by Editorial Board member Hyoukryeol Choi under the direction of Editor Jae-Bok Song. This work was supported by the Korea Research Foundation under grant KRF 2006-005-J03302 and the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation under grant KOSEF R0A-2007-000-20012-0. Van Phuoc Phan received the BS (2006) from the Department of Aeronautical Engineering, HCM University of Technology, Vietnam. Currently, he is a Master student at the Department of Advanced Technology Fusion, Konkuk University in Seoul, Korea. His interests are structural dynamics of small systems, smart structure and material, and finite element analysis. Nam Seo Goo graduated from the Department of Aeronautics Engineering of Seoul National University with honors in 1990, and got master and Ph.D. degrees in Department of Aerospace Engineering at the same university in 1992 and 1996, respectively. His Ph.D. degree was on the structural dynamics of aerospace systems. As soon as he got a Ph.D. degree, he entered the agency for defense development as a Senior Researcher. After four years’ service, he joined Department of Aerospace Engineering in Konkuk University, Seoul, Korea in 2002, currently serving an Associate Professor of Department of Advanced Technology Fusion. His current research interests are structural dynamics of small systems, smart structure and material, and MEMS applications. Hoon Cheol Park received his BS (1985) and MS(1987) degrees from Seoul National University in Seoul, Korea and Ph.D.(1994) degree from the University of Maryland at College Park, MD, USA. He joined the Department of Aerospace Engineering, Konkuk University in Seoul, Korea in 1995, and he is currently a Professor in the Department of Advanced Technology Fusion. His professional experience includes Kia Motors (1986–1988) and Korea Aerospace Research Institute (1994–1995). His specialty is the finite element analysis and recent research topic is mainly biomimetics.     

Vibration Control of a Planar Parallel Manipulator Using Piezoelectric Actuators

This paper presents an active damping control approach applied to piezoelectric actuators attached to flexible linkages of a planar parallel manipulator for the purpose of attenuation of unwanted mechanical vibrations. Lightweight linkages of parallel manipulators deform under high acceleration and deceleration, inducing unwanted vibration of linkages. Such vibration must be damped quickly to reduce settling time of the manipulator platform position and orientation. An integrated control system for a parallel manipulator is proposed to achieve precise path tracking of the platform while damping the undesirable manipulator linkage vibration. The proposed control system consists of a PD feedback control scheme for rigid body motion of the platform, and a linear velocity feedback control scheme applied to piezoelectric actuators to damp unwanted linkage vibrations. In this paper, we apply the proposed vibration suppression algorithm to two different types of piezoelectric actuators and evaluate their respective performances. The two piezoelectric actuators are (i) a PVDF layer applied to the flexible linkage and (ii) PZT actuator segments also applied to the linkage. Simulation results show that both piezoelectric actuators achieve good performance in vibration attenuation of the planar parallel manipulator. The dynamics of the planar parallel platform are selected such that the linkages have considerable flexibility, to better exhibit the effects of the vibration damping control system proposed.     

Dynamics and Noncollocated Model‐Free Position Control for a Space Robot with Multi‐Link Flexible Manipulators

In this paper, both the dynamics and noncollocated model‐free position control (NMPC) for a space robot with multi‐link flexible manipulators are developed. Using assumed modes approach to describe the flexible deformation, the dynamic model of the flexible space robotic system is derived with Lagrangian method to represent the system dynamic behaviors. Based on Lyapunov's direct method, the robust model‐free position control with noncollocated feedback is designed for position regulation of the space robot and vibration suppression of the flexible manipulators. The closed‐loop stability of the space robotic system can be guaranteed and the guideline of choosing noncollocated feedback is analyzed. The proposed control is easily implementable for flexible space robot with both uncertain complicated dynamic model and unknown system parameters, and all the control signals can be measured by sensors directly or obtained by a backward difference algorithm. Numerical simulations on a two‐link flexible space robot are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control.     

基于压电陶瓷的柔性机械臂主动振动控制实验研究

柔性机构因其工作效率高,能量消耗低和结构简单等优点被广泛应用于机器人领域.但柔性机构由于刚度较低,易产生弹性振动,使机器人的定位精度和运动精度降低.为了验证在前期的工作中提出的柔性机械臂主动振动最优控制位置分析的正确性,搭建了一个基于Labview的测试系统.在柔性臂上不同位置粘贴压电片来实现对柔性臂不同位置的主动振动控制,通过测试系统得到最优控制位置处和最优控制位置附近的柔性机械臂振动的传感电压,根据控制前后传感电压的变化分析柔性臂抑制的强弱.根据实验结果显示,柔性臂在前三阶振动下,分别在其最优控制位置上获得最高的抑振率,从而验证了最优控制位置的有效性.     

基于压电陶瓷的柔性机器人主动抑振控制策略研究

柔性机器人因其轻质、高效、低能耗等优点已被广泛应用于航空航天,工业制造等诸多领域。然而,柔性机构易产生弯曲变形,引起系统振动而大大降低机器人的工作精度。为提高柔性机器人的工作性能,多种抑振策略得以研究与应用。提出了基于压电陶瓷（PZT）的柔性机器人振动主动抑制策略。其中,PZT传感器和PZT制动器分别被用来检测和抑制柔性臂的振动。本文构建了基于PZT材料的单自由度柔性机械臂的理论模型,并获得了传感电压与制动电压的传递函数。设计了一个可变控制方案的抑振器以抑制系统在不同频率下的振动。在COMSOL中进行仿真,获得了系统的抑振率。根据仿真结果显示,柔性臂在前三阶振动下,臂的末端位移分别得到了57.04%,57.76%与58.96%的抑制;系统的动能得到了57.95%,71.19%与87.81%的抑制。     

柔性机械臂的双时间尺度组合控制

本文研究柔性机械臂的轨迹跟踪和振动抑制问题. 首先, 利用Lagrange法和假设模态法建立柔性机械臂的动态模型, 进而利用奇异摄动理论得到柔性机械臂的双时间尺度模型. 然后, 基于慢时间尺度模型利用滑模控制理论设计轨迹跟踪控制器; 借助于快时间尺度模型利用自适应动态规划设计参数不精确已知情况下的最优振动抑制控制器; 将二者相结合, 构造双时间尺度组合控制器, 利用奇异摄动理论证明闭环系统稳定. 最后, 在Matlab/Simulink环境下进行实验, 与现有方法相比, 本文设计的控制器对柔性振动具有更好的振动抑制效果, 跟踪精度更高.     

无杆气缸驱动的柔性机械臂振动控制

提出了一种无杆气缸驱动的柔性机械臂定位和振动抑制系统,采用脉冲码调制(pulse code modulation,PCM)方法实现.首先,推导了气动驱动柔性臂的系统模型,对采用的复合定位和振动抑制控制算法进行理论分析.其次,气缸行程长、气体具有压缩性以及气动驱动存在非线性和阀门开关有时延等因素会引起控制作用的滞后问题,容易激发高阶模态的极限环振荡,导致观测和控制溢出,这将影响控制系统的稳定性.为了克服上述问题,在控制算法中引入时延补偿、低通滤波法.最后,进行气动驱动柔性臂同时定位和振动抑制的试验研究.试验结果表明,采用的气动驱动控制方法可以有效地抑制柔性臂的低频模态振动,并同时实现定位.     

Vision-Based Task-Level Control of a Flexible-Link Manipulator

This paper discusses a vision-based approach to implement task-level control in flexible-link manipulators. The proposed approach emphasizes the advantage of using vision in the control of flexible manipulators. It is pointed out that taking advantage of the inherent robustness, implementation of an image-based visual servo can be regarded as a synthetic solution to precise task-level control of flexible manipulators. This approach is implemented in a three-dimensional flexible-link manipulator. The implementation makes good use of filters in decoupling task-level control and vibration suppression control. Moreover, we point out that although the robustness of the approach can help to overcome the difficulty in control resulting from the complex measurement of the link's elastic deformation, it lacks in capability of tip trajectory specification. This problem is analyzed in this research and it leads to the proposal for the integration of the image interpolation technique. This technique makes the proposed approach adequate for tasks involved with complex tip trajectories. For flexible-link manipulators, the proposed approach with the remedy is the first vision-based synthetic solution that attempts to make a flexible manipulator usable for a practical task.     

Trajectory planning for a manipulator with nonlinear Coulomb friction using a dynamically incremental genetic algorithm

Global warming and environmental destruction are caused in part by the mass consumption of energy by industries that use robotic manipulators. Hence, there is a need to minimize the energy used for manipulator control systems. It is relatively easy to analytically obtain an optimal solution for a linear system. However, a multi-link manipulator is governed by a nonlinear dynamical equation that is difficult to solve as a two-point boundary value problem. Here, the manipulator angles are approximated by Taylor and Fourier series, whose coefficients are sought by a genetic algorithm (GA) to optimize the objective function subject to the boundary conditions. A search method is proposed for planning the trajectory of a manipulator with nonlinear friction and geometrical constraints.     

Finite time control of robotic manipulators with position output feedback

This paper deals with the robust finite time tracking of desired trajectories for a wide group of robotic manipulators in spite of unknown disturbances, uncertainties, and saturations of actuators while only manipulator's positions are available and its velocities are not measurable physically. A new form of chattering‐free second order fast nonsingular terminal sliding mode control scheme is introduced to design input torques for fulfilling the determined tracking objective in the adjustable total finite settling time. The proposed control algorithm is incorporated with two nonlinear observers to estimate disturbances and velocities of joints within finite settling times. The global finite time stability of the closed‐loop manipulator is analytically proved. Finally, a numerical simulation is carried out to verify the effectiveness of the designed input torques. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

End‐Point Regulation and Vibration Suppression of a Flexible Robotic Manipulator

In this paper, end‐point regulation and vibration suppression are investigated for a flexible robotic manipulator subject to the external disturbances. The dynamics of the flexible robotic manipulator is represented by one partial differential equation (PDE) and five ordinary differential equations (ODEs). Based on the Lyapunov's direct method, boundary control is developed to drive the manipulator to the desired set‐point and simultaneously suppress the vibrations of the flexible manipulator. Considering the unknown spatiotemporally varying disturbance, uniform boundedness of the closed‐loop system is achieved. The control performance of the closed‐loop system is guaranteed by suitably choosing the design parameters. Simulations are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control.     

Feedback control of a flexible cylindrical manipulator

Flexible robotic manipulators have been the subject of numerous studies in the past few years. Past studies, however, have concentrated on flexible manipulators with only revolute joints. This paper considers the case of a structurally flexible manipulator with prismatic and revolute joints; specifically, an algorithm for controlling a structurally flexible three-degree-of-freedom cylindrical manipulator is presented. The control algorithm involves two steps. Using nonlinear feedback, the equations of motion are first decoupled into three subsystems representing the three rigid degrees of freedom together with their associated ‘flexible equations’, if any. Then, using linear optimal control theory, controllers are designed for the three subsystems independently. Computer simulated results for an example system are presented.     

Speed control strategy of dual flexible servo system considering time-varying parameters for flexible manipulator with an axially translating arm

Many factors lead to fluctuations of output speed in the motor side during the movement processes in a flexible manipulator with an axially translating arm. These factors include the time-varying characteristics of manipulator parameters, external disturbance, and flexibility in the manipulator. The vibration of flexible manipulators is strengthened by fluctuations of output speed, which seriously affects the motion accuracy. Therefore, a variable parameters proportional–integral (PI) control strategy based on disturbance observer is adopted to reduce fluctuations of output speed in a dual flexible servo system. First, the dynamic model of the dual flexible servo system is established by the assumed mode method. Then, the variable parameters PI control strategy is applied to the servo system, and the controller parameters in different conditions are selected by pole placement strategies. Finally, numerical simulations and control experiments of the servo system are carried out. The results show that the control strategy using the variable parameters and disturbance observer could reduce fluctuations of output speed and improve the motion accuracy of flexible manipulators.     

Neural network based dynamic modeling of flexible‐link manipulators with application to the SSRMS

This paper presents an approach for dynamic modeling of flexible‐link manipulators using artificial neural networks. A state‐space representation is considered for a neural identifier. A recurrent network configuration is obtained by a combination of feedforward network architectures with dynamical elements in the form of stable filters. To guarantee the boundedness of the states, a joint PD control is introduced in the system. The method can be considered both as an online identifier that can be used as a basis for designing neural network controllers as well as an offline learning scheme to compute deflections due to link flexibility for evaluating forward dynamics. Unlike many other methods, the proposed approach does not assume knowledge of the nonlinearities of the system nor that the nonlinear system is linear in parameters. The performance of the proposed neural identifier is evaluated by identifying the dynamics of different flexible‐link manipulators. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithm, simulation results for a single‐link manipulator, a two‐link planar manipulator, and the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) are presented. ©2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

柔性冗余度机器人力矩优化的研究

本文首先应用模态理论，对柔性冗余度机器人振动的控制问题的原理与策略进行了研究．在此基础上通过对满足抑振要求的自运动的选取进行分析，指出柔性冗余度机器人在通过优化其自运动实现振动抑制的同时还具有二次优化的能力，并给出了在满足抑振的前提下实现关节力矩优化的方法．最后对一个末杆为柔杆的平面三杆机械手的振动控制与力矩优化进行了仿真，结果验证了该方法的可行性．     

Predictive end-point trajectory control of elastic manipulators

This article presents an approach to end-point trajectory control of elastic manipulators based on the nonlinear predictive control theory. Although this approach is applicable to manipulators of general configuration, only planar flexible multi-link manipulators are considered. A predictive control law is derived by minimizing a quadratic function of the trajectory error of the end-points of each link, elastic modes, and control torques. This approach avoids the instability of the zero dynamics encountered in the controller design using feedback linearization and variable structure control techniques for end-point control. Furthermore, the derived predictive controller is robust to uncertainty in the system parameters. Simulation results are presented for a one-link flexible manipulator to show that in the closed-loop system accurate end-point trajectory control and vibration damping can be accomplished. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

欠驱动柔性机器人的振动可控性分析

欠驱动柔性机器人的可控性分析是对其进行有效控制的关键问题. 本文以具有柔性杆的3DOF平面欠驱动机器人为例, 分两步分析系统的可控性. 首先,忽略杆件的弹性变形, 研究欠驱动刚性系统在不同驱动电机位置的状态可控性；然后, 考虑柔性因素, 研究欠驱动柔性系统的结构振动可控性. 结果表明振动可控性是随机器人关节位形和驱动电机位置而变化的, 并且欠驱动刚性机器人的状态可控性对相应的柔性系统的振动可控性有很重要的影响. 最后, 将上述研究方法扩展到具有一个被动关节的N自由度平面欠驱动柔性机器人.     

Hybrid Control Scheme for Robust Tracking of Two-Link Flexible Manipulator

The hybrid control scheme is proposed to stabilize the vibration of a two-link flexible manipulator while the robustness of Variable Structure Control (VSC) developed for rigid manipulators is maintained for controlling the joint angles. The VSC law alone, which is designed to accomplish only the asymptotic decoupled joint angle trajectory tracking, does not guarantee the stability of the flexible mode dynamics of the links. In order to actively suppress the flexible link vibrations, hybrid trajectories for the VSC are generated using the virtual control force concept, so that robust tracking control of the flexible-link manipulator can also be accomplished. Simulation results confirm that the proposed hybrid control scheme can achieve more robust tracking control of two-link flexible manipulator than the conventional control scheme in the presence of payload uncertainty.     

Hybrid Control Scheme for Robust Tracking of Two-Link Flexible Manipulator

A hybrid control scheme is proposed to stabilize the vibration of a two-link flexible manipulator while robustness of Variable Structure Control (VSC) developed for rigid manipulators is maintained for controlling the joint angles. The VSC law alone, which is designed to accomplish only the asymptotic decoupled joint angle trajectory tracking, does not guarantee the stability of the flexible mode dynamics of the links. In order to actively suppress the flexible link vibrations, hybrid trajectories for the VSC are generated using the virtual control force concept, so that robust tracking control of the flexible-link manipulator can also be accomplished. Simulation results confirm that the proposed hybrid control scheme can achieve more robust tracking control of two-link flexible manipulator than the conventional control scheme in the presence of payload uncertainty.     

Constrained motion control of flexible robot manipulators based on recurrent neural networks

In this paper, a neural network approach is presented for the motion control of constrained flexible manipulators, where both the contact force everted by the flexible manipulator and the position of the end-effector contacting with a surface are controlled. The dynamic equations for vibration of flexible link and constrained force are derived. The developed control, scheme can adaptively estimate the underlying dynamics of the manipulator using recurrent neural networks (RNNs). Based on the error dynamics of a feedback controller, a learning rule for updating the connection weights of the adaptive RNN model is obtained. Local stability properties of the control system are discussed. Simulation results are elaborated on for both position and force trajectory tracking tasks in the presence of varying parameters and unknown dynamics, which show that the designed controller performs remarkably well.