Inertial vibration damping control of a flexible base manipulator

A rigid (micro) robot mounted serially to the tip of a long flexible (macro) robot is often used to increase the reach capability, but flexibility in the macro-manipulator can make it susceptible to vibration. A rigid manipulator attached to a flexible but unactuated base was considered as an analogous problem. The interaction forces and torques acting at the base of the robot are used to damp the vibration. Appropriate control gain limits are established to ensure the inertia effects, or those directly due to accelerating the links of the rigid robot, have the greatest influence on the interactions. By commanding the link accelerations out of phase with the base velocity, vibrational energy will be removed from the system. This signal is then added to the rigid robot position controller, providing combined rigid robot position and vibration control of the base.     

A neural-network-based controller for a single-link flexiblemanipulator using the inverse dynamics approach

This paper presents an intelligent-based control strategy for tip position tracking control of a single-link flexible manipulator. Motivated by the well-known inverse dynamics control strategy for rigid-link manipulators, two feedforward neural networks (NNs) are proposed to learn the nonlinearities of the flexible arm associated with the inverse dynamics controller. The redefined output approach is used by feeding back this output to guarantee the minimum phase behavior of the resulting closed-loop system. No a priori knowledge about the nonlinearities of the system is needed and the payload mass is also assumed to be unknown. The network weights are adjusted using a modified online error backpropagation algorithm that is based on the propagation of output tracking error, derivative of that error and the tip deflection of the manipulator. The real-time controller is implemented on an experimental test bed. The results achieved by the proposed NN-based controller are compared experimentally with conventional proportional-plus-derivative-type and standard inverse dynamics controls to substantiate and verify the advantages of our proposed scheme and its promising potential in identification and control of nonlinear systems     

Robust sliding-mode tip position control for flexible arms

In this paper, we consider the robust tip position control problem for flexible arms by using the sliding-mode method. The higher order modes of the flexible arm are treated as disturbances, and are compensated by introducing a disturbance observer. The remaining disturbance and the model uncertainties are considered as the system uncertainty. The robustness of the sliding-mode control is effectively employed to cope with the system uncertainty, where the upper and lower bounds of the uncertainty are adaptively updated. The stability of the closed-loop system is analyzed by using the fact that a part of the control input is the approximate estimate of the uncertainty. Experimental results show that the robustness and superiority of the proposed method, where only the strain moment at the root and motor angular position of the arm are measured     

Vibration control of a single-link flexible manipulator using an array of fiber optic curvature sensors and PZT actuators

This paper presents a novel distributed sensing and actuation approach for actively suppressing vibrations within flexible link manipulators. Through vibration suppression, the method acts to regulate the shape of flexible links and, consequently, improves the performance of any independent trajectory controller being employed over the manipulator joints. To demonstrate the approach, a series of piezoceramic actuators (PZTs) are bonded to the surface of a single-link flexible manipulator. Slewing of the flexible link induces vibrations in the link that persist long after the hub stops rotating. The vibration suppression is achieved through a combined scheme of PD-based hub motion control and a PZT actuator controller that is a composite of linear and angular velocity feedback controllers. A Lyapunov approach is used to synthesize the composite controller, and a unique, commercially-available sensor, called ShapeTape^?, that provides the linear and angular velocity feedback. The sensor array is comprised of a series of fiber optic curvature sensors that are laminated on a long, thin ribbon tape which can be embedded into the flexible link and measures the bend and twist of the link’s centerline. Simulation and experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed approach and the ability of the new sensor to provide the requisite feedback.     

Parametric vibration for electromechanical integrated electrostatic harmonic drive

In this paper, the electromechanical coupled force between flexible ring and stator of the drive system is presented. The radial displacement of the flexible ring subjected to electric field force is obtained. A critical voltage is found beyond which the flexible ring and the stator will make contact. Considering the ring contacting with the stator as a curved beam fixed at ends, an electromechanical coupled dynamic equation of the drive system is developed. From the equation, the natural frequencies and vibrating modes of the drive system are given. The periodic variable voltage is expressed as disturbance on natural frequency of the drive system and the forced response of the drive system to voltage excitation is investigated. Using Laplace transformation, the forced frequency response of the drive system to voltage excitation is obtained as well. Changes of the forced frequency response along with drive parameters are discussed. Influences of the linear excitation caused by changing boundary angle on the system vibrations are also investigated. The response frequencies are dependent on exciting frequency and natural one. As the exciting frequency is close to the natural frequency of the drive system, the resonance occurs. The flexible ring radius, clearance between the ring and stator, etc. has obvious influences on the frequency responses of the drive system.     

End-point vibration sensing of planar flexible manipulators through visual servoing

A visual servoing approach to the control of planar flexible robotic manipulators is adopted in this paper, based on the composite control theory, where the camera sensor is used together with the strain gauge measurements, to estimate the tip deformation. A fast Kalman filter, built on an integral manifold approximation of the manipulator model, can be used to fuse in the most effective way the measurements coming from different sensors, each one perturbed by its own noise. As a consequence, the signal to noise ratio of the deformation measurements can be effectively improved. A difficulty however arises in deriving a linear relation between the camera output and the state variables: the specific contribution of this paper is the derivation of such a linear relation in the fast time scale. Simulation results based on a two link planar flexible manipulator show the potential of the proposed approach to gain a more effective suppression of the tip vibrations, while an experimental example demonstrates its practical feasibility.     

机械臂双目视觉系统内外参高精度标定

在空间站机械臂中,双目视觉系统作为其重要组成部分,能够引导机械臂自主完成对目标的定位和捕获。内外参标定技术是双目相机高精度获取合作目标位置、方向等运动信息进而进行三维重建的首要前提和重要保障。文中提出了一种基于光束法平差算法的双目视觉系统内外参标定技术,采用三维靶标场作为标定目标,并将高精度测角设备经纬仪作为精测基准,通过坐标转换解算分步得到相机的内、外参数。实验表明,该方法标定的相机内参重投影误差小于0.5个像元,外参测试误差为±0.19 mm,有较高的测试精度和鲁棒性,为机械臂实施视觉闭环自主捕获合作目标提供可靠依据。     

Adaptive neuro-fuzzy control of a flexible manipulator

This paper describes an adaptive neuro-fuzzy control system for controlling a flexible manipulator with variable payload. The controller proposed in this paper is comprised of a fuzzy logic controller (FLC) in the feedback configuration and two dynamic recurrent neural networks in the forward path. A dynamic recurrent identification network (RIN) is used to identify the output of the manipulator system, and a dynamic recurrent learning network (RLN) is employed to learn the weighting factor of the fuzzy logic. It is envisaged that the integration of fuzzy logic and neural network based-controller will encompass the merits of both technologies, and thus provide a robust controller for the flexible manipulator system. The fuzzy logic controller, based on fuzzy set theory, provides a means for converting a linguistic control strategy into control action and offering a high level of computation. On the other hand, the ability of a dynamic recurrent network structure to model an arbitrary dynamic nonlinear system is incorporated to approximate the unknown nonlinear input–output relationship using a dynamic back propagation learning algorithm. Simulations for determining the number of modes to describe the dynamics of the system and investigating the robustness of the control system are carried out. Results demonstrate the good performance of the proposed control system.     

复合周期特异介质光子晶体异质结的谐振模

一维异质结光子晶体包含两个基本单元结构,其中每个单元都由一种特异介质和常规介质层叠构成.利用传输矩阵法,通过数值模拟得出两种不同异质结光子晶体的透射谱.在1.0 ～ 10.0 GHz频率范围内,(AB)6(CD)4结构的透射谱中出现了三个光子带隙,但带隙中没有谐振模;而在(《AB)6(CD)4)2结构的透射谱中,在三个光子带隙内均出现谐振模.在第一带隙内,随着入射角的增大,TE波和TM波的谐振模数目均减少且谐振模发生频移.其中对于TE波,在2.40 GHz附近出现了全向谐振模.     

基于全光纤相干层析系统快速扫描探头的研制

提出并实现了应用于光学相干层析系统(OCT)的快速扫描探头结构。该探头利用带有自聚焦透镜的光纤悬臂的共振特性,通过对压电双晶片施加共振频率下的方波电压,实现光纤悬臂的一维线性扫描。利用二维位置敏感探测器,同步记录扫描轨迹。通过软件对光纤延迟线的非线性进行校正。并将扫描探头应用于OCT系统中的玻片实验,获得清晰玻片的二维图像。该探头具有结构简单、易于控制、成本较低、精度较高、速度较快等优点。     

穿销机械手的PLC控制的硬件设计

本文首先介绍了PLC在柔性制造系统穿销机械手的应用,其次阐述了加盖机械手的组成及控制流程。从PLC的控制原理角度,设计了穿销机械手控制流程图、电源系统图、PLC的I/O接口设计及它们的地址分配,经实验验证,达到了预期的控制目的。     

Design,dynamic modelling and experimental validation of a new three-degree-of-freedom flexible arm

This article describes the design, dynamic modelling and experimental validation of a new three-degree-of-freedom flexible arm which is suitable for industrial applications. The arm was designed on the assumption that all its mass was concentrated at the tip. In keeping with this, the arm was built with very lightweight links, and all the actuators were located at its base. A second feature is a special mechanical configuration that approximately decouples radial tip motion from angular tip motions; i.e. the first actuator produces an azimuthal movement, the second actuator produces an elevation movement and the third produces an approximately radial movement. From the dynamics point of view, this new mechanism also decouples the forces transmitted by the actuators to the tip of the arm, i.e. the torque generated by each actuator produces a tip force which is orthogonal to the forces produced by any of the other actuators. On the assumption that all the mass is concentrated at the tip, a compliance matrix can be used to model the oscillations of the structure. Then, dynamics of the arm becomes very simple (a lumped single mass model instead of the usual distributed mass model), and its control system can be significantly simplified: minimum sensing effort is required (only motor and tip measurements are needed), and PID controllers combined with a dynamic inversion subsystem can be used. These design specifications have been experimentally validated on the prototype we have built. Experimental identification of the dynamics has confirmed the validity of the assumption of a single mass concentrated at the tip. A flexible manipulator of simplified dynamics has been built and tested which is much lighter than equivalent standard industrial robots.     

Position control system of a two degree of freedom manipulator witha passive joint

A method is proposed for controlling the position of a manipulator with passive joints that have holding brakes instead of actuators. In this method, the coupling characteristics of manipulator dynamics are used, and no additional mechanisms are required. The effectiveness of the method was verified by experiments using a prototype manipulator. The prototype is a two-degree-of-freedom, horizontally articulated manipulator. The first axis is an active joint, and the second axis is a passive joint. While the brake of the passive joint is released, the passive joint is indirectly controlled by the motion of the active joint through the use of dynamic coupling. While the brake is engaged, the active joint is controlled. By combining these two control modes, the total position of the manipulator is controlled. The experiments show that use of this method makes the precise positioning of the passive joints possible     

Singular Perturbation Control for Vibration Rejection in HDDs Using the PZT Active Suspension as Fast Subsystem Observer

Currently, position sensors other than the read/write head are not embedded into current hard disk drives (HDDs) due to signal-to-noise ratio and nanometer resolution issues. Moreover, a noncollocated sensor fusion creates nonminimum phase zero dynamics which degrades the tracking performance. In this paper, the singular perturbation theory is applied to decompose the voice coil motor's (VCM's) and induced PZT active suspension's dynamics into fast and slow subsystems, respectively. The control system is decomposed into fast and slow time scales for controller designs, and control effectiveness is increased to tackle more degrees-of-freedom via an inner loop vibration suppression with measured high-frequency VCM's and PZT active suspension's dynamics from the piezoelectric elements in the suspension. Experimental results on a commercial HDD with a laser doppler vibrometer show the effective suppression of the VCM and PZT active suspension's flexible resonant modes, as well as an improvement of 39.9% in 3sigma position error signal during track following when compared to conventional notch-based servos     

Modeling and Control of Needles With Torsional Friction

A flexible needle can be accurately steered by robotically controlling the bevel tip orientation as the needle is inserted into tissue. Friction between the long, flexible needle shaft and the tissue can cause a significant discrepancy between the orientation of the needle tip and the orientation of the base where the needle angle is controlled. Our experiments show that several common phantom tissues used in needle steering experiments impart substantial friction forces to the needle shaft, resulting in a lag of more than 45 $^{circ}$ for a 10 cm insertion depth in some phantoms; clinical studies report torques large enough to cause similar errors during needle insertions. Such angle discrepancies will result in poor performance or failure of path planners and image-guided controllers, since the needles used in percutaneous procedures are too small for state-of-the-art imaging to accurately measure the tip angle. To compensate for the angle discrepancy, we develop an estimator using a mechanics-based model of the rotational dynamics of a needle being inserted into tissue. Compared to controllers that assume a rigid needle in a frictionless environment, our estimator-based controller improves the tip angle convergence time by nearly 50% and reduces the path deviation of the needle by 70%.      

Force control of a very lightweight single-link flexible arm based on coupling torque feedback

In this paper, a feedback control law is proposed for regulating the contact force exerted by a very lightweight single-link flexible manipulator when it comes into contact with a motionless object. This control law is based on a lumped-parameter model. The tracking of the desired contact force is obtained by using a feedback loop control of the coupling torque between the motor and the flexible arm. To achieve a good performance on the force control it is only necessary to measure the coupling torque at the root of the arm. Neither the contact force sensor nor the angular position sensor of the motor are used in the control method. A modified PID controller is proposed for this control law. In this work the force control problem is studied for both free and constrained motions of the flexible manipulator, and a collision detection algorithm is also described.     

Computed force and velocity control for spatial multi-DOF electro-hydraulic parallel manipulator

A novel dynamic trajectory tracking controller for spatial 6-DOF electro-hydraulic parallel manipulator considering system nonlinearity-computed force and velocity controller is proposed, with a view of improving the control performance with high computational efficiency of control algorithm. The dynamic model of electro-hydraulic parallel manipulator, both mechanical and hydraulic system, is described by using Kane and hydromechanics method. The requisite system states are estimated via forward kinematics based upon global Newton–Raphson with monotonic descent algorithms under the measured actuator position. The desired leg position and velocity required for the proposed controller are calculated by an analytical method corresponding to the desired generalized pose, and the desired driven force is computed with an effectively simplified inverse dynamics. Under feed-forward of the desired driven force and velocity, the computed force and velocity controller is developed with actual leg position as its feedback only, and the desired leg position, velocity and driven force as its input. The control performance of the proposed controller for multi-DOF parallel manipulator is evaluated in theory and experiment, especially for dynamic tracking performance. Experimental results show that the presented controller can greatly improve the dynamic trajectory tracking performance for high real time electro-hydraulic parallel manipulator.     

Dual-band planar inverted F antenna for GSM/DCS mobile phones

A compact dual-band planar inverted F antenna suitable for the application as a global system for mobile communication/digital communication system (GSM/DCS) dual-band mobile phone internal antenna is proposed and implemented. The proposed antenna has three resonant elements, two meandered metallic strips of slightly different lengths and one nearly-rectangular patch, which are printed on a supporting FR4 substrate and arranged in a compact configuration. These three resonant elements share a common shorting pin, and for the GSM (890-960 MHz) operation, the proposed antenna is operated with the two meandered strips both resonated as a quarter-wavelength structure, leading to a wide bandwidth formed by two resonant modes. For the upper band of the proposed antenna, three resonant modes are generated, two from the second higher-order modes of the two meandered strips and one from the nearly-rectangular patch, leading to a wide bandwidth covering the DCS band (1710-1880 MHz). The antenna design and experimental results are presented.     

空间相机快速反射镜的两轴柔性支撑结构设计

快速反射镜是空间相机中常用的像移补偿装置,而支撑结构的机械特性将直接影响快速反射镜系统的响应速度及闭环带宽。以某近地轨道空间相机中的音圈电机驱动型快速反射镜为研究对象,设计了基于十字型柔性铰链的两轴柔性支撑结构,该结构具有空间利用率高、中心漂移小等优点。根据悬臂梁的挠曲线近似微分方程,建立了柔性支撑结构两轴转动刚度的数学模型,针对快速反射镜机构的谐振频率要求,选择了柔性铰链的主要结构参数,并利用有限元软件MSC.Patran对机构进行了模态分析,分析结果表明,快速反射镜机构在两个工作方向上的谐振频率分别为18.6 Hz和18.7 Hz,而其他非工作方向上的谐振频率均在292.2 Hz以上,证明了柔性铰链结构参数的选择具有合理性。为了检验理论模型的准确性,加工了快速反射镜的样机并搭建实验平台,对机构的转动刚度和谐振频率进行了检测,检测结果与理论分析得到的结果在允许的误差范围内具有一致性。