Sliding mode control of the reaction wheel pendulum

textThe Reaction Wheel Pendulum (RWP) is an interesting nonlinear system. A prototypical control problem for the RWP is to stabilize it around the upright position starting from the bottom, which is generally divided into at least 2 phases: (1) Swing-up phase: where the pendulum is swung up and moves toward the upright position. (2) Stabilization phase: here, the pendulum is controlled to be balanced around the upright position. Previous studies mainly focused on an energy method in swing-up phase and a linearization method in stabilization phase. However, several limitations exist. The energy method in swing-up mode usually takes a long time to approach the upright position. Moreover, its trajectory is not controlled which prevents further extensions. The linearization method in the stabilization phase, can only work for a very small range of angles around the equilibrium point, limiting its applicability. In this thesis, we took the 2nd order state space model and solved it for a constant torque input generating the family of phase-plane trajectories (see Appendix A). Therefore, we are able to plan the motion of the reaction wheel pendulum in the phase plane and a sliding mode controller may be implemented around these trajectories. The control strategy presented here is divided into three phases. (1) In the swing up phase a switching torque controller is designed to oscillate the pendulum until the system’s energy is enough to drive the system to the upright position. Our approach is more generic than previous approaches; (2) In the catching phase a sliding surface is designed in the phase plane based on the zero torque trajectories, and a 2nd order sliding mode controller is implemented to drive the pendulum moving along the sliding surface, which improves the robustness compared to the previous method in which the controller switches to stabilization mode when it reaches a pre-defined region. (3) In the stabilization phase a 2nd order sliding mode integral controller is used to solve the balancing problem, which has the potential to stabilize the pendulum in a larger angular region when compared to the previous linearization methods. At last we combine the 3 phases together in a combined strategy. Both simulation results and experimental results are shown. The control unit is National Instruments CompactRIO 9014 with NI 9505 module for module driving and NI 9411 module for encoding. The Reaction Wheel Pendulum is built by Quanser Consulting Inc. and placed in UT’s Advanced Mechatronics Lab.Mechanical Engineerin

Energy Shaping of Underactuated Systems via Interconnection and Damping Assignment Passivity-Based Control with Applications to Planar Biped Robots

The sought goal of this thesis is to show that total energy shaping is an effective and versatile tool to control underactuated mechanical systems. The performance of several approaches, rooted in the port-Hamiltonian formalism, are analyzed while tackling distinct control problems: i) equilibrium stabilization; ii) gait generation; iii) gait robustication. Firstly, a constructive solution to deal with interconnection and damping assignment passivity-based control (IDA-PBC) for underactuated two-degree-of-freedom mechanical systems is proposed. This strategy does not involve the resolution of any partial differential equation, since explicit solutions are given, while no singularities depending on generalized momenta are introduced by the controller. The methodology is applied to the stabilization of a translational oscillator with a rotational actuator system, as well as, to the gait generation for an underactuated compass-like biped robot (CBR). Then, the problem of gait generation is addressed using dissipative forces in the controller. In this sense, three distinct controllers are presented, namely simultaneous interconnection and damping assignment passivity-based control with dissipative forces, energy pumping-and-damping passivity-based control (EPD-PBC), and energy pumping-or-damping control. Finally, EPD-PBC is used to increase the robustness of the gait exhibited by the CBR over uncertainties on the initial conditions. The passivity of the system is exploited, as well as, its hybrid nature (using the hybrid zero dynamics method) to carry out the stability analysis. Besides, such an approach is applied to new gaits that are generated using IDA-PBC. Numerical case studies, comparisons, and critical discussions evaluate the performance of the proposed approaches

Optimal control of an underactuated bipedal robot

Bipedal robots represent a unique class of control problems that combine many of the most difficult elements of nonlinear control. These robots are typically designed to be mobile and as such have limited energy and actuator authority making efficiency a prime concern. Unlike wheeled robots, legged robots must transition between different equations of motion as legs make and break contact with the ground, aggravating the complexities of hybrid dynamics. Furthermore, small feet and series elastic actuation of joints leads to an underactuated system, causing traditional nonlinear control methods to struggle. This thesis describes and validates a general framework for efficiently controlling systems with the properties most problematic in bipedal robots, i.e., nonlinearity, hybrid dynamics, and underactuation. This process is two-step in that, first, an optimal trajectory is generated using direct collocation trajectory optimization, and second, the feasible trajectory is stabilized using a time varying linear quadratic regulator. We demonstrate this process on a number of toy problems including the triple pendulum on a cart and a reduced order template for a running robot. This approach is then applied to the bipedal robot ATRIAS in simulation in order to achieve efficient, dynamic, and robust locomotion behaviors

A Constructive Methodology for the IDA-PBC of Underactuated 2-DoF Mechanical Systems with Explicit Solution of PDEs

This paper presents a passivity-based control strategy dealing with underactuated two-degree-of-freedom (2-DoF) mechanical systems. Such a methodology, which is based on the interconnection and damping assignment passivity-based control (IDA-PBC), rooted within the port-controlled Hamiltonian framework, can be applied to a very large class of underactuated 2-DoF mechanical systems. The main contribution, compared to the previous literature, is that the new methodology does not involve the resolution of any partial differential equation, since explicit solutions are given, while no singularities depending on generalised momenta are introduced by the controller. The proposed strategy is applied to two case studies: a) the stabilisation of a translational oscillator with a rotational actuator (TORA) system; b) the gait generation for an underactuated compass-like biped robot. The performances of the presented solution are evaluated through numerical simulations

Climbing and Walking Robots

Nowadays robotics is one of the most dynamic fields of scientific researches. The shift of robotics researches from manufacturing to services applications is clear. During the last decades interest in studying climbing and walking robots has been increased. This increasing interest has been in many areas that most important ones of them are: mechanics, electronics, medical engineering, cybernetics, controls, and computers. Today’s climbing and walking robots are a combination of manipulative, perceptive, communicative, and cognitive abilities and they are capable of performing many tasks in industrial and non- industrial environments. Surveillance, planetary exploration, emergence rescue operations, reconnaissance, petrochemical applications, construction, entertainment, personal services, intervention in severe environments, transportation, medical and etc are some applications from a very diverse application fields of climbing and walking robots. By great progress in this area of robotics it is anticipated that next generation climbing and walking robots will enhance lives and will change the way the human works, thinks and makes decisions. This book presents the state of the art achievments, recent developments, applications and future challenges of climbing and walking robots. These are presented in 24 chapters by authors throughtot the world The book serves as a reference especially for the researchers who are interested in mobile robots. It also is useful for industrial engineers and graduate students in advanced study

Sliding mode control trajectory tracking implementation on underactuated dynamic systems

Master of ScienceDepartment of Mechanical EngineeringWarren N. WhiteThe subject of linear control is a mature subject that has many proven powerful techniques. Recent research generally falls into the area of non-linear control. A subsection of non-linear control that has garnered a lot of research recently has been in underactuated dynamic systems. Many applications of the subject exist in robotics, aerospace, marine, constrained systems, walking systems, and non-holonomic systems. This thesis proposes a sliding mode control law for the tracking control of an underactuated dynamic system. A candidate Lyapunov function is used to build the desired tracking control. The proposed control method does not require the integration of feedback as does its predecessor. The proposed control can work on a variety of underactuated systems. Its predecessor only worked on those dynamic systems that are simply underactuated (torques acting on some joints, no torques acting on others). For dynamic systems that contain a roll without slip constraint, often a desired trajectory to follow is related to dynamic coordinates through a non-holonomic constraint. A navigational control is shown to work in conjunction with the sliding mode control to allow tracking of these desired trajectories. The methodology is applied through simulations to a holonomic case of the Segbot, an inverted cart-pole, a non-holonomic case of Segbot, and a rolling wheel. The methodology is implemented on an actual Segbot and shown to provide more favorable tracking results than linear feedback gains

The Spherical Inverted Pendulum with Pelvis Width in Polar Coordinates for Humanoid Walking Design

The present communication is a follow up and extension of the paper “The Spherical Inverted Pendulum: Exact Solutions of Gait and Foot Placement Estimation Based on Symbolic Computation” by the same author. The walk design is approached by a 3-D inverted pendulum in a polar coordinate system. The advantage of this model is to easily offer indications of the energy expenditure of an efficient walk. However, the disadvantages that were never recognized by authors previously using this model is that the COG trajectory has to pass through the supporting foot location. This causes an unnecessary and unrealistic waving in the frontal plane during gait. The problem is discussed here and solved by extending the model of the inverted pendulum by introducing the pelvis width and the distance between the hips of the two legs, without adding dynamical complexity

Metastable legged-robot locomotion

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2008.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Includes bibliographical references (p. 195-215).A variety of impressive approaches to legged locomotion exist; however, the science of legged robotics is still far from demonstrating a solution which performs with a level of flexibility, reliability and careful foot placement that would enable practical locomotion on the variety of rough and intermittent terrain humans negotiate with ease on a regular basis. In this thesis, we strive toward this particular goal by developing a methodology for designing control algorithms for moving a legged robot across such terrain in a qualitatively satisfying manner, without falling down very often. We feel the definition of a meaningful metric for legged locomotion is a useful goal in and of itself. Specifically, the mean first-passage time (MFPT), also called the mean time to failure (MTTF), is an intuitively practical cost function to optimize for a legged robot, and we present the reader with a systematic, mathematical process for obtaining estimates of this MFPT metric. Of particular significance, our models of walking on stochastically rough terrain generally result in dynamics with a fast mixing time, where initial conditions are largely "forgotten" within 1 to 3 steps. Additionally, we can often find a near-optimal solution for motion planning using only a short time-horizon look-ahead. Although we openly recognize that there are important classes of optimization problems for which long-term planning is required to avoid "running into a dead end" (or off of a cliff!), we demonstrate that many classes of rough terrain can in fact be successfully negotiated with a surprisingly high level of long-term reliability by selecting the short-sighted motion with the greatest probability of success. The methods used throughout have direct relevance to machine learning, providing a physics-based approach to reduce state space dimensionality and mathematical tools to obtain a scalar metric quantifying performance of the resulting reduced-order system.by Katie Byl.Ph.D