Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T11:48:17.290Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Decentralized robust control of robot manipulators with harmonic drive transmission and application to modular and reconfigurable serial arms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2009

Z. Li ,
W. W. Melek  and
C. Clark
Z. Li*
Affiliation:
University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario, CanadaN2L3G1.
W. W. Melek
Affiliation:
University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, Ontario, CanadaN2L3G1.
C. Clark
Affiliation:
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA 93407, USA.
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

In this paper, we propose a decentralized robust control algorithm for modular and reconfigurable robots (MRRs) based on Lyapunov's stability analysis and backstepping techniques. In using decentralized control schemes with robot manipulators, each joint is considered as an independent subsystem, and the dynamical effects from the other links and joints are treated as disturbance. However, there exist many uncertainties due to unmodeled dynamics, varying payloads, harmonic drive (HD) compliance, HD complex gear meshing mechanisms, etc. Also, while the reconfigurability of MRRs is advantageous, modifying the configuration will result in changes to the robot dynamics parameters, thereby making it challenging to tune the control system. All of the above mentioned disturbances in addition to reconfigurability present a challenge in controlling MRRs. The proposed controller is well suited for MRR applications because of its simple structure that does not require the exact knowledge of the dynamic parameters of the configurations. Desired tracking performance can be achieved via tuning a limited set of parameters of the robust controller. If the numbers of degrees of freedom are held constant, these parameters are shown to be relatively independent of the configuration, and can be held constant between changes in configuration. This strategy is novel compared to existing MRR control methods. In order to validate the controller performance, experimental setup and results are also presented.

Keywords

Modular and reconfigurable robotRobustDecentralizedLyapunovBackstepping
Type
Article
Information
Robotica , Volume 27 , Issue 2 , March 2009 , pp. 291 - 302
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Chen, I.-M. and Yang, G., “Configuration Independent Kinematics for Modular Robots,” IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Minneapolis, MN (1996) pp. 1440–1445.Google Scholar
2.Schmitz, D., Khosla, P. and Kanade, T., “The CMU reconfigurable modular manipulator system,” Carnegie Mellon University, CMU-RI-TR-88-7, 1998.Google Scholar
3.Murata, S., Kurokawa, H., Yoshida, E., Tomita, K. and Kokaji, S., “A 3-D Self-Reconfigurable Structure,” Proceeding of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (1998) pp.432–439.Google Scholar
4.Yim, M., Duff, D. G. and Roufas, K. D., “Polybot: A Modular Reconfigurable Robot,” Proceeding of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (2000) pp. 514–520.Google Scholar
5.Chen, I.-M., Theory and Applications of Modular Reconfigurable Robotic System Ph.D. Thesis (CA: California Institute of Technology, 1994).Google Scholar
6.Aspragathos, N. A., “Reconfigurable Robots Towards the Manufacturing of the Future,” Virtual conference in Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems, IPROM (2005).Google Scholar
7.Hirzinger, G., Albu-Schaffer, A., Hahnle, M., Schaefer, I. and Sporer, N., “On a New Generation of Torque Controlled Light-Weight Robots,” Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Seoul, Korea (2001) pp. 3356–3363.Google Scholar
8.Seraji, H., “Adaptive Independent Joint Control of Manipulators: Theory and Experiment,” Proceeding of IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Philadelphia, PA, Vol. 2 (1998) pp. 854–861.Google Scholar
9.Tang, Y., Tomizuka, M., Guerrero, G. and Montemayor, G., “Decentralized robust control of mechanical systems,” IEEE Trans. Automat. Contr. 26, 1139–1144 (1981).Google Scholar
10.Erlic, M. and Lu, W. S., “A reduced-order adaptive velocity observer for manipulator control,” IEEE Trans. Rob. Automat. 11 (2) (1995) pp. 238–333.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11.Hsia, T. C. S., Lasky, A. and Zhengyu, Guo, “Robust independent joint controller design for industrial robot manipulators,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron. 38 (1) (1991) pp. 21–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
12.Luca, D., Farina, R. and Lucibello, P., “On the Control of Robots with Visco-Elastic Joints,” Proceeding of IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Barcelona, Spain (2005).Google Scholar
13.Angeles, A. Rodrguez and Nijmeijer, H., “Synchronizing tracking control for flexible joint robots via estimated state feedback,” Trans. ASME 126, 162–172 (2004).Google Scholar
14.Taghirad, H. D. and Khosravi, M. A., “Stability analysis and robust composite controller synthesis for flexible joint robots,” Adv. Rob. 20 (2), 181–211 (2006).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
15.Dawson, D. M., Qu, Z., Bridges, M. and Carroll, J., “Robust Tracking of Rigid-Link Flexible-Joint Electrically-Driven Robots,” Proceedings of IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Brighton, England (1991) pp. 1409–1412.Google Scholar
16.Etxebarria, V., Sanz, A. and Lizarraga, I., “Control of a lightweight flexible robotic arm using sliding modes,” Int. J. Adv. Rob. Syst. 2, 103–110 (2005).Google Scholar
17.Spong, M. W., “Modeling and control of elastic joint robots,” J. Dyn. Syst., Meas., and Control 109, 310–319 (1987).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
18.Taghirad, H. D. and Ozgoli, S., “Robust Controller with a Supervisor Implemented on a Flexible Joint Robot,” Proceeding of IEEE Conference on Control Applications, Toronto, Ont (2005) pp. 1188–1193.Google Scholar
19.Sage, H. G., Mathelin, M. F. DE and Ostertag, E., “Robust control of robot manipulators: A survey,” Int. J. Control 72 (16), 1498–1522 (1999).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
20.Qu, Z. and Dawson, D. M., Robust Tracking Control of Robot Manipulators (The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, NJ, 1996) pp. 120–126.Google Scholar
21.Lewis, F. L., Abdallah, C. T. and Dawson, D. M., Control of Robot Manipulators (Macmillan, NY, 1993) pp. 189–255.Google Scholar
22.Spong, M. W., Seth, Hutchinson and Vidyasagar, M., Robot Modeling and Control (John Wiley and Sons, NJ, 2006) pp. 348–357.Google Scholar
23.Tang, Y., Tomizuka, M., Guerrero, G. and Montemayor, G., “Decentralized robust control of mechanical systems,” IEEE Trans. Automat. Control 45 (4), 771–776 (2000).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
24.Tarokh, M., “Decoupled nonlinear three-term controllers for robot trajectory tracking,” IEEE Trans. Rob. Automat. 15 (2), 369–380 (1999).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
25.Bridges, M. M. and Dawson, D. M., “Redesign of robust controllers for rigid-link flexible-joint robotic manipulators actuated with harmonic drive gearing,” IEE Proc. Control Theory Appl. 142 (5), 508–514 (1995).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
26.Luca, A. D., Siciliano, B. and Zollo, L., “PD control with on-line gravity compensation for robots with elastic joints: Theory and experiments,” Automatica 41, 1809–1819 (2005).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
27.Macnab, C. J. B., D'Eleuterio, G. M. T. and Meng, M., “CMAC Adaptive Control of Flexible-Joint Robots Using Backstepping with Tuning Functions,” IEEE Proceedings of the International Conference on Robotics and Automation, New Orleans, LA, (2004) pp. 2679–2686.Google Scholar
28.Macnab, C. J. B., Qu, Z. and Johnson, R., “Robust fuzzy control for robot manipulators,” IEE Proc. Control Theory Appl. 147 (2), 212–216 (2000).Google Scholar
29.Lim, S. Y., Dawson, D. M., Hu, J. and de Queiroz, M. S., “An adaptive link position tracking controller for rigid-link flexible-joint robots without velocity measurements,” IEEE Trans. Syst., MAN, Cybernet. – Part B: Cybernet. 27 (3), 412–427 (1997).Google ScholarPubMed
30.Casalino, G. and Turetta, A., “A Computationally Distributed Self-Organizing Algorithm for the Control of Manipulators in the Operational Space,” IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Barcelona, Spain, Vol. 18, No. 22 (Apr. 2005) pp. 4050–4055.Google Scholar
31.Paredis, C. J. J., Brown, H. G. and Khosla, P. K., “A Rapidly Deployable Manipulator System,” Proceeding of IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (1996) pp. P1434–P1439.Google Scholar
32.Kircanski, N. M. and Goldenberg, A. A., “An experimental study of nonlinear stiffness, hysteresis, and friction effects in robot joints with harmonic drives and torque sensors,” Int. J. Rob. Res. 16 (2), 214–239 (1997).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
33.Tuttle, T. D. and Seering, W. P., “A nonlinear model of a harmonic drive gear transmission,” IEEE Trans. Rob. Automat. 12 (3), 368–374 (1996).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
34.Khall, H. K., Nonlinear Systems (Prentice-Hall, NJ, 2002) pp. 589–603.Google Scholar
35.Li, Z., Melek, W. and Clark, C. M., “Development and Characterization of a Modular and Reconfigurable Robot,” The 2nd International Conference on Changeable, Agile, Reconfigurable and Virtual Production (CARV 2007), Toronto, Canada (July 22–24, 2007).Google Scholar
36.Tuttle, T. D. and Seering, W., “Modeling a Harmonic Drive Gear Transmission,” IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Atlanta, GA, Vol. 2 (1993) pp. 624–629.Google Scholar
37.Taghirad, H. D. and Belanger, P. R., “Modeling and parameter identification of harmonic drive systems,” J. Dyn. Syst., Meas., Control 120 (4), 439–444 (Dec. 1998).CrossRefGoogle Scholar