Model Based Control of Soft Robots: A Survey of the State of the Art and Open Challenges

Continuum soft robots are mechanical systems entirely made of continuously deformable elements. This design solution aims to bring robots closer to invertebrate animals and soft appendices of vertebrate animals (e.g., an elephant's trunk, a monkey's tail). This work aims to introduce the control theorist perspective to this novel development in robotics. We aim to remove the barriers to entry into this field by presenting existing results and future challenges using a unified language and within a coherent framework. Indeed, the main difficulty in entering this field is the wide variability of terminology and scientific backgrounds, making it quite hard to acquire a comprehensive view on the topic. Another limiting factor is that it is not obvious where to draw a clear line between the limitations imposed by the technology not being mature yet and the challenges intrinsic to this class of robots. In this work, we argue that the intrinsic effects are the continuum or multi-body dynamics, the presence of a non-negligible elastic potential field, and the variability in sensing and actuation strategies.Comment: 69 pages, 13 figure

Optimal Control of Unknown Nonlinear System From Inputoutput Data

Optimal control designers usually require a plant model to design a controller. The problem is the controller\u27s performance heavily depends on the accuracy of the plant model. However, in many situations, it is very time-consuming to implement the system identification procedure and an accurate structure of a plant model is very difficult to obtain. On the other hand, neuro-fuzzy models with product inference engine, singleton fuzzifier, center average defuzzifier, and Gaussian membership functions can be easily trained by many well-established learning algorithms based on given input-output data pairs. Therefore, this kind of model is used in the current optimal controller design. Two approaches of designing optimal controllers of unknown nonlinear systems based on neuro-fuzzy models are presented in the thesis. The first approach first utilizes neuro-fuzzy models to approximate the unknown nonlinear systems, and then the feasible-direction algorithm is used to achieve the numerical solution of the Euler-Lagrange equations of the formulated optimal control problem. This algorithm uses the steepest descent to find the search direction and then apply a one-dimensional search routine to find the best step length. Finally several nonlinear optimal control problems are simulated and the results show that the performance of the proposed approach is quite similar to that of optimal control to the system represented by an explicit mathematical model. However, due to the limitation of the feasible-direction algorithm, this method cannot be applied to highly nonlinear and dimensional plants. Therefore, another approach that can overcome these drawbacks is proposed. This method utilizes Takagi-Sugeno (TS) fuzzy models to design the optimal controller. TS fuzzy models are first derived from the direct linearization of the neuro-fuzzy models, which is close to the local linearization of the nonlinear dynamic systems. The operating points are chosen so that the TS fuzzy model is a good approximation of the neuro-fuzzy model. Based on the TS fuzzy model, the optimal control is implemented for a nonlinear two-link flexible robot and a rigid asymmetric spacecraft, thus providing the possibility of implementing the well-established optimal control method on unknown nonlinear dynamic systems

Development of Robust Control Strategies for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

The resources of the energy and chemical balance in the ocean sustain mankind in many ways. Therefore, ocean exploration is an essential task that is accomplished by deploying Underwater Vehicles. An Underwater Vehicle with autonomy feature for its navigation and control is called Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV). Among the task handled by an AUV, accurately positioning itself at a desired position with respect to the reference objects is called set-point control. Similarly, tracking of the reference trajectory is also another important task. Battery recharging of AUV, positioning with respect to underwater structure, cable, seabed, tracking of reference trajectory with desired accuracy and speed to avoid collision with the guiding vehicle in the last phase of docking are some significant applications where an AUV needs to perform the above tasks. Parametric uncertainties in AUV dynamics and actuator torque limitation necessitate to design robust control algorithms to achieve motion control objectives in the face of uncertainties. Sliding Mode Controller (SMC), H / μ synthesis, model based PID group controllers are some of the robust controllers which have been applied to AUV. But SMC suffers from less efficient tuning of its switching gains due to model parameters and noisy estimated acceleration states appearing in its control law. In addition, demand of high control effort due to high frequency chattering is another drawback of SMC. Furthermore, real-time implementation of H / μ synthesis controller based on its stability study is restricted due to use of linearly approximated dynamic model of an AUV, which hinders achieving robustness. Moreover, model based PID group controllers suffer from implementation complexities and exhibit poor transient and steady-state performances under parametric uncertainties. On the other hand model free Linear PID (LPID) has inherent problem of narrow convergence region, i.e.it can not ensure convergence of large initial error to zero. Additionally, it suffers from integrator-wind-up and subsequent saturation of actuator during the occurrence of large initial error. But LPID controller has inherent capability to cope up with the uncertainties. In view of addressing the above said problem, this work proposes wind-up free Nonlinear PID with Bounded Integral (BI) and Bounded Derivative (BD) for set-point control and combination of continuous SMC with Nonlinear PID with BI and BD namely SM-N-PID with BI and BD for trajectory tracking. Nonlinear functions are used for all P,I and D controllers (for both of set-point and tracking control) in addition to use of nonlinear tan hyperbolic function in SMC(for tracking only) such that torque demand from the controller can be kept within a limit. A direct Lyapunov analysis is pursued to prove stable motion of AUV. The efficacies of the proposed controllers are compared with other two controllers namely PD and N-PID without BI and BD for set-point control and PD plus Feedforward Compensation (FC) and SM-NPID without BI and BD for tracking control. Multiple AUVs cooperatively performing a mission offers several advantages over a single AUV in a non-cooperative manner; such as reliability and increased work efficiency, etc. Bandwidth limitation in acoustic medium possess challenges in designing cooperative motion control algorithm for multiple AUVs owing to the necessity of communication of sensors and actuator signals among AUVs. In literature, undirected graph based approach is used for control design under communication constraints and thus it is not suitable for large number of AUVs participating in a cooperative motion plan. Formation control is a popular cooperative motion control paradigm. This thesis models the formation as a minimally persistent directed graph and proposes control schemes for maintaining the distance constraints during the course of motion of entire formation. For formation control each AUV uses Sliding Mode Nonlinear PID controller with Bounded Integrator and Bounded Derivative. Direct Lyapunov stability analysis in the framework of input-to-state stability ensures the stable motion of formation while maintaining the desired distance constraints among the AUVs

Advanced Strategies for Robot Manipulators

Amongst the robotic systems, robot manipulators have proven themselves to be of increasing importance and are widely adopted to substitute for human in repetitive and/or hazardous tasks. Modern manipulators are designed complicatedly and need to do more precise, crucial and critical tasks. So, the simple traditional control methods cannot be efficient, and advanced control strategies with considering special constraints are needed to establish. In spite of the fact that groundbreaking researches have been carried out in this realm until now, there are still many novel aspects which have to be explored

Decentralized adaptive neural network control of interconnected nonlinear dynamical systems with application to power system

Traditional nonlinear techniques cannot be directly applicable to control large scale interconnected nonlinear dynamic systems due their sheer size and unavailability of system dynamics. Therefore, in this dissertation, the decentralized adaptive neural network (NN) control of a class of nonlinear interconnected dynamic systems is introduced and its application to power systems is presented in the form of six papers. In the first paper, a new nonlinear dynamical representation in the form of a large scale interconnected system for a power network free of algebraic equations with multiple UPFCs as nonlinear controllers is presented. Then, oscillation damping for UPFCs using adaptive NN control is discussed by assuming that the system dynamics are known. Subsequently, the dynamic surface control (DSC) framework is proposed in continuous-time not only to overcome the need for the subsystem dynamics and interconnection terms, but also to relax the explosion of complexity problem normally observed in traditional backstepping. The application of DSC-based decentralized control of power system with excitation control is shown in the third paper. On the other hand, a novel adaptive NN-based decentralized controller for a class of interconnected discrete-time systems with unknown subsystem and interconnection dynamics is introduced since discrete-time is preferred for implementation. The application of the decentralized controller is shown on a power network. Next, a near optimal decentralized discrete-time controller is introduced in the fifth paper for such systems in affine form whereas the sixth paper proposes a method for obtaining the L2-gain near optimal control while keeping a tradeoff between accuracy and computational complexity. Lyapunov theory is employed to assess the stability of the controllers --Abstract, page iv

Identification of robotic manipulators' inverse dynamics coefficients via model-based adaptive networks

The values of a given manipulator's dynamics coefficients need to be accurately identified in order to employ model-based algorithms in the control of its motion. This thesis details the development of a novel form of adaptive network which is capable of accurately learning the coefficients of systems, such as manipulator inverse dynamics, where the algebraic form is known but the coefficients' values are not. Empirical motion data from a pair of PUMA 560s has been processed by the Context-Sensitive Linear Combiner (CSLC) network developed, and the coefficients of their inverse dynamics identified. The resultant precision of control is shown to be superior to that achieved from employing dynamics coefficients derived from direct measurement. As part of the development of the CSLC network, the process of network learning is examined. This analysis reveals that current network architectures for processing analogue output systems with high input order are highly unlikely to produce solutions that are good estimates throughout the entire problem space. In contrast, the CSLC network is shown to generalise intrinsically as a result of its structure, whilst its training is greatly simplified by the presence of only one minima in the network's error hypersurface. Furthermore, a fine-tuning algorithm for network training is presented which takes advantage of the CSLC network's single adaptive layer structure and does not rely upon gradient descent of the network error hypersurface, which commonly slows the later stages of network training

Control Of Rigid Robots With Large Uncertainties Using The Function Approximation Technique

This dissertation focuses on the control of rigid robots that cannot easily be modeled due to complexity and large uncertainties. The function approximation technique (FAT), which represents uncertainties as finite linear combinations of orthonormal basis functions, provides an alternate form of robot control - in situations where the dynamic equation cannot easily be modeled - with no dependency on the use of model information or training data. This dissertation has four aims - using the FAT - to improve controller efficiency and robustness in scenarios where reliable mathematical models cannot easily be derived or are otherwise unavailable. The first aim is to analyze the uncertain combination of a test robot and prosthesis in a scenario where the test robot and prosthesis are adequately controlled by different controllers - this is tied to efficiency. We develop a hybrid FAT controller, theoretically prove stability, and verify its performance using computer simulations. We show that systematically combining controllers can improve controller analysis and yield desired performance. In the second aim addressed in this dissertation, we investigate the simplification of the adaptive FAT controller complexity for ease of implementation - this is tied to efficiency. We achieve this by applying the passivity property and prove controller stability. We conduct computer simulations on a rigid robot under good and poor initial conditions to demonstrate the effectiveness of the controller. For an n degrees of freedom (DOFs) robot, we see a reduction of controller tuning parameters by 2n. The third aim addressed in this dissertation is the extension of the adaptive FAT controller to the robust control framework - this is tied to robustness. We invent a novel robust controller based on the FAT that uses continuous switching laws and eliminates the dependency on update laws. The controller, when compared against three state-of-the-art controllers via computer simulations and experimental tests on a rigid robot, shows good performance and robustness to fast time-varying uncertainties and random parameter perturbations. This introduces the first purely robust FAT-based controller. The fourth and final aim addressed in this dissertation is the development of a more compact form of the robust FAT controller developed in aim~3 - this is tied to efficiency and robustness. We investigate the simplification of the control structure and its applicability to a broader class of systems that can be modeled via the state-space approach. Computer simulations and experimental tests on a rigid robot demonstrate good controller performance and robustness to fast time-varying uncertainties and random parameter perturbations when compared to the robust FAT controller developed in aim 3. For an n-DOF robot, we see a reduction in the number of switching laws from 3 to 1

Novel Dynamic Representation and Control of Power Systems with FACTS Devices

FACTS devices have been shown to be useful in damping power system oscillations. However, in large power systems, the FACTS control design is complex due to the combination of differential and algebraic equations required to model the power system. In this paper, a new method to generate a nonlinear dynamic representation of the power network is introduced to enable more sophisticated control design. Once the new representation is obtained, a back stepping methodology for the UPFC is utilized to mitigate the generator oscillations. Finally, the neural network approximation property is utilized to relax the need for knowledge of the power system topology and to approximate the nonlinear uncertainties. The net result is a power system representation that can be used for the design of an enhanced FACTS control scheme. Simulation results are given to validate the theoretical conjectures