Atomic-scale friction control by vibration using friction force microscope

Manipulation of friction at the nanoscale has been traditionally approached by chemical means (lubrication). Recent friction force microscopy (FFM) experiments demonstrated that it can be done mechanically by applying vibration to accessible elements of the system. This paper provides analytic understanding on why vibration can reduce friction based on a 1D model imitating the FFM tip moving on a substrate. Open-loop stability is first studied, and a feedback vibration control is then designed using the accessible variable. Comparing to the open-loop system, friction force is significantly reduced in the closed-loop system. Numerical simulations show satisfactory performances.     

仿生假手抓握力控制策略

为了使仿生假手完成各种精细作业,提出一种抓握力控制策略.在自由空间和约束空间中分别使用基于位置的阻抗控制和力跟踪阻抗控制.在过渡过程中使用模糊观测器切换控制模式.两种控制模式采用同一个基于位置的阻抗控制器,在约束空间向阻抗控制器中引入参考力,以满足约束空间的抓握力控制要求.这种方法可以使关节在自由空间和约束空间中分别实现良好的轨迹跟踪和力矩跟踪,在过渡过程中实现控制模式的可靠切换和系统的稳定过渡.提出一种自适应滑模摩擦力补偿方法,利用终端滑模思想设计了滑模函数,使得系统跟踪误差在有限时间内收敛,避免了传统线性滑模面状态跟踪误差无法在有限时间内收敛至0的问题.根据指数形式摩擦力的特点,利用终端滑模控制思想获得包含摩擦力参数估计的滑模控制律,并基于李亚普诺夫稳定性定理推导了估计参数的在线自适应律.对该抓握力控制策略在HIT假手上进行了抓取实验,实验结果证明了控制策略的有效性.     

Safety verification method for preventing friction blisters during utilization of physical assistant robots

This study is mainly concerned with the potential hazards of interactive friction force on a human–robot contact surface, which may result in various skin traumas, such as friction blisters. In this study, a novel safety verification method is developed for helping physical assistant robot users to avoid this hazardous condition. First, based on the microscopic structure of the epidermis–dermis layer and the characteristics of blisters on porcine skin, we prove that the porcine skin, instead of the human skin, is feasible as an innovative experimental material for generating friction blisters. Second, the conditions for generating blisters on porcine skin are confirmed using a series of adaptive time-gradient tests. Considering the properties of the censored results, we clarify an inherently safe region in the tangential traction–time relationship, which is based on a nonparametric estimation of the survival function on the subjects. After a condition-matching calculation, this region for the porcine skin is further verified to be consistent with that for the human skin. Third, the safety of the ‘stand-up and sit-down’ motion of a physical assistant robot user is successfully validated by applying this verification method, which finally proves its practical usability with regard to the possible physical stress hazard.     

Tire–road friction coefficient and tire cornering stiffness estimation based on longitudinal tire force difference generation

A sequential tire cornering stiffness coefficient and tire–road friction coefficient (TRFC) estimation method is proposed for some advanced vehicle architectures, such as the four-wheel independently-actuated (FWIA) electric vehicles, where longitudinal tire force difference between the left and right sides of the vehicle can be easily generated. Such a tire force difference can affect the vehicle yaw motion, and can be utilized to estimate the tire cornering stiffness coefficient and TRFC. The proposed tire cornering stiffness coefficient and TRFC identification method has the potential of estimating these parameters without affecting the vehicle desired motion control and trajectory tracking objectives. Simulation and experimental results with a FWIA electric vehicle show the effectiveness of the proposed estimation method.     

混沌系统最大Lyapunov指数估计新方法研究

Lyapunov指数是定量描述混沌系统的重要指标。本文提出一种基于混沌同步的最大Lyapunov指数估计方法,通过构造反馈控制耦合混沌同步系统,应用混沌同步条件,估计原系统最大Lyapunov指数即为满足两耦合系统达到同步的最小控制增益。以Lorenz混沌和静摩擦Duffing振子为仿真对象,仿真结果验证了方法的有效性。     

Estimation and Compensation of Gravity and Friction Forces for Robot Arms: Theory and Experiments

This paper considers the estimation and compensation of the unknown gravity force and static friction for robot motion control. Utilizing the stability feature of PD set-point control, the estimates of gravity-related parameters and static friction can be solved from two steady state equations obtained by stopping robots at two nonsingular positions. The estimates obtained can then be used to eliminate the position error. Under a mild assumption that the mass center of each robot link is distributed on a straight line connecting two adjacent joints, the gravity force regression matrix becomes upper-triangle which can significantly simplify the algorithm. The positive experimental result obtained for practical verification is also presented.     

Tracking control of a precision stage with integral sliding-mode friction estimator

This work concerns the development of a integral sliding-mode tracking controller with friction estimator for a precision positioning stage. This stage is supported by cross roller guides, therefore, one of the main disturbances during dynamic motion is the friction force. In order to overcome the uncertainties and the effect of friction, an integral sliding-mode controller with uncertainty and disturbance estimation scheme is designed to control the motion of the stage. Comparing with conventional PID controllers, the experimental results show that with this controller the tracking errors can be reduced significantly.     

飞机操纵系统建模及降阶仿真研究

通过对某型号飞机三轴（纵向、横向、侧向）操纵系统（机构操纵系统、增稳系统、自动加码仪系统）组成、结构及功能分析,建立了完整的数学模型。将系统分布参数分段集中化处理,在Ｍａｔｌａｂ环境下以模块化方式进行系统仿真得到了与实际系统静动态响应相吻合的仿真模型。由于飞机操纵系统模型的高阶非线性,采用“最小二乘参数拟合法”进行等效降阶处理,得到低阶带延迟环节的简化模型。这种以时域响应进行优化、频域响应进行验证     

基于状态估计的摩擦模糊建模与鲁棒自适应控制

针对一类多自由度机械系统, 研究了基于状态估计的摩擦模糊建模与鲁棒自适应控制问题. 提出用模糊状态估计器估计摩擦模型中的不可测变量, 并用严格正实和李雅普诺夫稳定性理论证明了状态估计误差的一致最终有界性. 运用模糊状态估计结果设计了多变量鲁棒自适应控制器, 其中摩擦模糊模型中的自适应参数是基于李雅普诺夫稳定性理论设计的, 并证明了闭环系统跟踪误差的一致最终有界性. 本文对多自由度质量、弹簧和摩擦阻尼系统进行的仿真, 结果表明所提出的状态估计算法和自适应控制策略是有效的.     

A sliding-mode based smooth adaptive robust controller for friction compensation

In this paper, a new approach employing both adaptive and robust methodologies is proposed for stick–slip friction compensation for tracking control of a one degree-of-freedom DC-motor system. It is well known that the major components of friction are Coulomb force, viscous force, exponential force (used to model the downward bend of friction at low velocity) and position-dependent force. Viscous force is linear and Coulomb force is linear in parameter; thus, these two forces can be compensated for by adaptive feedforward cancellation. Meanwhile, the latter two forces, which are neither linear nor linear in parameters, can only be partially compensated for by adaptive feedforward cancellation. Therefore, a robust compensator with an embedded adaptive law to ‘learn’ the upper bounding function on-line is proposed to compensate the uncancelled exponential and position-dependent friction. Lyapunov's direct method is utilized to prove the globally asymptotic stability of the servo-system under the proposed friction compensation method. Numerical simulations are presented as illustrations. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Corner-based estimation of tire forces and vehicle velocities robust to road conditions

Recent developments in vehicle stability control and active safety systems have led to an interest in reliable vehicle state estimation on various road conditions. This paper presents a novel method for tire force and velocity estimation at each corner to monitor tire capacities individually. This is entailed for more demanding advanced vehicle stability systems and especially in full autonomous driving in harsh maneuvers. By integrating the lumped LuGre tire model and the vehicle kinematics, it is shown that the proposed corner-based estimator does not require knowledge of the road friction and is robust to model uncertainties. The stability of the time-varying longitudinal and lateral velocity estimators is explored. The proposed method is experimentally validated in several maneuvers on different road surface frictions. The experimental results confirm the accuracy and robustness of the state estimators.     

An Improved Extended Active Observer for Adaptive Control of A <Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis><Emphasis Type="Italic">−</Emphasis>DOF Robot Manipulator

A novel algorithm for simultaneous force estimation and friction compensation of constrained motion of robot manipulators is presented. This represents an extension of the improved extended active observer (IEAOB) algorithm reported earlier and proposes a higher order IEAOB or N?th order IEAOB (IEAOB ?N) for a n?DOF robot manipulator. Central to this observer is the use of extra system states modeled as a Gauss-Markov (GM) formulation to estimate the force and disturbances including robot inertial parameters and friction. The stability of IEAOB ?N is verified through stability analysis. The IEAOB-1 is validated by applying it to a Phantom Omni haptic device against a Nicosia observer, disturbance observer (DOB)/reaction torque observer (RTOB), and nonlinear disturbance observer (NDO), respectively. The results show that the proposed IEAOB-1 is superior to the compared observers in terms of force estimation. Then, the performance of the IEAOB ? N is experimentally studied and compared to the IEAOB-1. Results demonstrate that the IEAOB ? N has an improved capability in tracking nonlinear external forces.     

Independent traction control for uneven terrain using stick-slip phenomenon: application to a stair climbing robot

Mobile robots are being developed for building inspection and security, military reconnaissance, and planetary exploration. In such applications, the robot is expected to encounter rough terrain. In rough terrain, it is important for mobile robots to maintain adequate traction as excessive wheel slip causes the robot to lose mobility or even be trapped. This paper proposes a traction control algorithm that can be independently implemented to each wheel without requiring extra sensors and devices compared with standard velocity control methods. The algorithm estimates the stick-slip of the wheels based on estimation of angular acceleration. Thus, the traction force induced by torque of wheel converses between the maximum static friction and kinetic friction. Simulations and experiments are performed to validate the algorithm. The proposed traction control algorithm yielded a 40.5% reduction of total slip distance and 25.6% reduction of power consumption compared with the standard velocity control method. Furthermore, the algorithm does not require a complex wheel-soil interaction model or optimization of robot kinematics.     

Two-stage adaptive robot position/force control using fuzzy reasoning and neural networks

Many studies have been performed on the position/force control of robot manipulators. Since the desired position and force required to realize certain tasks are usually designated in the operational space, the controller should adapt itself to an environment and generate the control force vector in the operational space. On the other hand, the friction of each joint of a robot manipulator is a serious problem since it impedes control accuracy. Therefore, the friction should be effectively compensated for in order to realize precise control of robot manipulators. Recently, soft computing techniques (fuzzy reasoning, neural networks and genetic algorithms) have been playing an important role in the control of robots. Applying the fuzzy-neuro approach (a combination of fuzzy reasoning and neural networks), learning/adaptation ability and human knowledge can be incorporated into a robot controller. In this paper, we propose a two-stage adaptive robot manipulator position/force control method in which the uncertain/unknown dynamic of the environment is compensated for in the task space and the joint friction is effectively compensated for in the joint space using soft computing techniques. The effectiveness of the proposed control method was evaluated by experiments.     

Estimation of road frictional force and wheel slip for effective antilock braking system (ABS) control

The introduction of electric braking via brake‐by‐wire systems in electric vehicles) has reduced the high transportation delays usually involved in conventional friction braking systems. This has facilitated the design of more efficient and advanced control schemes for antilock braking systems (ABSs). However, accurate estimation of the tire‐road friction coefficient, which cannot be measured directly, is required. This paper presents a review of existing estimation methods, focusing on sliding‐mode techniques, followed by the development of a novel friction estimation technique, which is used to design an efficient ABS control system. This is a novel slip‐based estimation method, which accommodates the coupling between the vehicle dynamics, wheel dynamics, and suspension dynamics in a cascaded structure. A higher‐order sliding‐mode observer–based scheme is designed, considering the nonlinear relationship between friction and slip. A first‐order sliding‐mode observer is also designed based on a purely linear relationship. A key feature of the proposed estimation schemes is the inclusion of road slope and the effective radius of the tire as an estimated state. These parameters impact significantly on the accuracy of slip and friction estimation. The performance of the proposed estimation schemes are validated and benchmarked against a Kalman filter (KF) by a series of simulation tests. It is demonstrated that the sliding‐mode observer paradigm is an important tool in developing the next generation ABS systems for electric vehicles.     

伺服系统的神经网络摩擦力自适应补偿研究

在高精度伺服系统中，摩擦力是影响其低速性能的关键因素。该文分析了摩擦力的特性、数学模型、及其对伺服系统性能的影响，提出了基于RBF网络的自适应摩擦力补偿方法，并将其与参数线性化模型相比较。在某单轴速率／位置转台的控制系统中的应用结果表明，该方法能有效地改善伺服系统的性能。     

自动武器抽壳过程仿真及抽壳力相关研究

自动武器的抽壳是一个瞬态动力学过程,其中耦合了许多复杂因素,仅用理论的力学分析很难得到较为精确的抽壳力数值,这使得传统的自动武器抽壳机构设计只能依赖估算和经验.为了更加准确和简便地得到抽壳力数值,采用有限元方法对某自动武器的抽壳过程进行了计算机仿真.给出了抽壳力随时间变化的曲线,可用于指导抽壳机构设计.并用理论和仿真数据相结合分析了初始间隙和弹膛壁厚对抽壳力的影响,用仿真数据分析了摩擦系数对抽壳力的影响.分析表明初始间隙与抽壳力近似成线性负相关关系,弹膛壁厚与抽壳力近似成反比例关系,摩擦系数与抽壳力近似成线性正相关关系.     

Static Force-Based Modeling and Parameter Estimation for a Deformable Link Composed of Passive Spherical Joints With Preload Forces

To balance the contradiction between higher flexibility and heavier load bearing capacity, we present a novel deformable manipulator which is composed of active rigid joints and deformable links. The deformable link is composed of passive spherical joints with preload forces between socket-ball surfaces. To estimate the load bearing capacity of a deformable link, we present a static force-based model of spherical joint with preload force and analyze the static force propagation in the deformable link. This yields an important result that the load bearing capacity of a spherical joint only depends on its radius, preload force, and static friction coefficient. We further develop a parameter estimation method to estimate the product of preload force and static friction coefficient. The experimental results validate our model. 80.4% of percentage errors on the maximum payload mass prediction are below 15%.      

Sensorless force estimation for industrial robots using disturbance observer and neural learning of friction approximation

Contact force estimation enables robots to physically interact with unknown environments and to work with human operators in a shared workspace. Most heavy-duty industrial robots without built-in force/torque sensors rely on the inverse dynamics for the sensorless force estimation. However, this scheme suffers from the serious model uncertainty induced by the nonnegligible noise in the estimation process. This paper proposes a sensorless scheme to estimate the unknown contact force induced by the physical interaction with robots. The model-based identification scheme is initially used to obtain dynamic parameters. Then, neural learning of friction approximation is designed to enhance estimation performance for robotic systems subject with the model uncertainty. The external force exerted on the robot is estimated by a disturbance observer which models the external disturbance. A momentum observer is modified to develop a disturbance Kalman filter-based approach for estimating the contact force. The neural network-based model uncertainty and measurement noise level are analysed to guarantee the robustness of the Kalman filter-based force observer. The proposed scheme is verified by the measurement data from a heavy-duty industrial robot with 6 degrees of freedom (KUKA AUGLIS six). The experimental results are used to demonstrate the estimation performance of the proposed approach by the comparison with the existing schemes.     

Vibrational positioning method for optical fibers sliding on a frictional surface

 Open-loop positioning methods for optical fibers on glass substrates are presented. When a slender and flexible object such as an optical fiber is moved on a frictional surface, its position is difficult to control because the object is caught in a frictional dead zone, causing the occurrence of stick-slip. In this paper, first, a positioning method when the friction force is known is derived based on a one-degree-of-freedom model of a sliding optical fiber. Then, a positioning method when the friction force is not known is derived by modifying the method for the case of known friction. Finally, the validity of the theory is verified by experiment and simulation. Received: 5 July 2001/Accepted: 1 November 2001