Adaptive neural control of a class of uncertain state and input-delayed systems with input magnitude and rate constraints

This article aims at proposing an adaptive neural control strategy for a class of nonlinear time-delay systems with input delays and unknown control directions. Different from previous researches that investigated delays and constraints separately, the novelty of this article lies in that it simultaneously considers delays (state and input delays) and input constraints (magnitude and rate constraints) for a class of uncertain nonlinear systems. In this article, the uncertain states and input delays are handled by integrating a constructed auxiliary system that functions as an observer with neural networks (NNs), with which the adverse effects caused by the uncertain states and input delays can be approximated and compensated. By involving smooth hyperbolic tangent functions in the designed auxiliary system, the problem of magnitude and rate constraints of the control input is fully addressed. Then, the backstepping technique runs through the entire control designing process, which allows the designed adaptive neural control strategy to handle the input constraints and delays at the same time. Furthermore, Nussbaum functions are employed to resolve the problem of unknown control directions. Due to the introduction of an input-driven filter, only the output of the system is required to be measured as the control feedback, which promotes the applicability of the designed controller. Under the proposed control scheme, semiglobal, uniform, and ultimate boundedness of all signals of the closed-loop system is realized with uncertain control directions, input and state delays, and guaranteed magnitude and rate constraints of control inputs. Finally, simulation results are illustrated to verify the effectiveness of the presented control method

Path learning in human-robot collaboration tasks using iterative learning methods

In a repetitive human-robot collaboration (HRC) task, robots typically are required to learn the intended motion of the human user to improve the collaboration efficiency. However, the human user's trajectory is of uncertainty when repeating the same task (e.g., human hand tremor and uncertain movement speed), which may directly deteriorate the learning performance. To address this issue, a path characterized by spatial correlation parameters, is of necessity to be learned by robots so that the aforementioned time-related uncertainty will be avoided. In this article, based on the path parameterization, a gradient-based iterative path learning (IPL) strategy is designed for the robot to learn the desired path of human. The proposed IPL strategy draws on the iterative learning methods with a properly designed performance index. Since the gradient of the performance index is hard to directly obtain in HRC, two learning methods with gradient search (GS) and gradient estimation (GE) are developed. The GS estimates the gradient online and has an advantage of easy implementation. By contrast, the advantage of GS is more obvious when the number of learned parameters is considerable due to its high learning efficiency. With these two methods, the unknown path parameters can be iteratively updated toward the desired values. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed IPL algorithm, experiments are carried out. In the experiment, a comparison between GS and GE methods is made to display their respective advantages. Besides, the proposed IPL is compared with an existing trajectory learning method subject to two different kinds of uncertainties and its better learning performance verifies its stability and capability in dealing with uncertainty

Impedance Learning for Human-Guided Robots in Contact With Unknown Environments

Previous works have developed impedance control to increase safety and improve performance in contact tasks, where the robot is in physical interaction with either an environment or a human user. This article investigates impedance learning for a robot guided by a human user while interacting with an unknown environment. We develop automatic adaptation of robot impedance parameters to reduce the effort required to guide the robot through the environment, while guaranteeing interaction stability. For nonrepetitive tasks, this novel adaptive controller can attenuate disturbances by learning appropriate robot impedance. Implemented as an iterative learning controller, it can compensate for position dependent disturbances in repeated movements. Experiments demonstrate that the robot controller can, in both repetitive and nonrepetitive tasks: first, identify and compensate for the interaction, second, ensure both contact stability (with reduced tracking error) and maneuverability (with less driving effort of the human user) in contact with real environments, and third, is superior to previous velocity-based impedance adaptation control methods

Impedance learning for human-guided robots in contact with unknown environments

Previous works have developed impedance control to increase safety and improve performance in contact tasks, where the robot is in physical interaction with either an environment or a human user. This article investigates impedance learning for a robot guided by a human user while interacting with an unknown environment. We develop automatic adaptation of robot impedance parameters to reduce the effort required to guide the robot through the environment, while guaranteeing interaction stability. For nonrepetitive tasks, this novel adaptive controller can attenuate disturbances by learning appropriate robot impedance. Implemented as an iterative learning controller, it can compensate for position dependent disturbances in repeated movements. Experiments demonstrate that the robot controller can, in both repetitive and nonrepetitive tasks: first, identify and compensate for the interaction, second, ensure both contact stability (with reduced tracking error) and maneuverability (with less driving effort of the human user) in contact with real environments, and third, is superior to previous velocity-based impedance adaptation control methods

Iterative learning-based robotic controller with prescribed human-robot interaction force

In this article, an iterative-learning-based robotic controller is developed, which aims at providing a prescribed assistance or resistance force to the human user. In the proposed controller, the characteristic parameter of the human upper limb movement is first learned by the robot using the measurable interaction force, a recursive least square (RLS)-based estimator, and the Adam optimization method. Then, the desired trajectory of the robot can be obtained, tracking which the robot can supply the human's upper limb with a prescribed interaction force. Using this controller, the robot automatically adjusts its reference trajectory to embrace the differences between different human users with diverse degrees of upper limb movement characteristics. By designing a performance index in the form of interaction force integral, potential adverse effects caused by the time-related uncertainty during the learning process can be addressed. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in supplying the prescribed interaction force to the human user

Development and evaluation of a Planktonic Integrity Index (PII) for Jingpo Lake, China

A Planktonic Integrity Index (PII) for the China’s largest alpine barrier lake (Jingpo Lake) was developed to assess the water quality of Jingpo Lake by using phytoplankton and zooplankton metrics. Phytoplankton and zooplankton assemblages were sampled at 26 sites in Jingpo Lake. A total of 140 species of phytoplankton and 92 species of zooplankton were obtained in the investigations. We used a stepwise process to evaluate properties of candidate metrics and selected five for the PII: Algal cell abundance, Species richness of algae, Trophic diatom index, Zooplankton Shannon index, and Zooplankton Margalef index. Evaluation of the PII showed that it discriminated well between reference and impaired sites and the discriminatory biocriteria of the PII were suitable for the assessment of the water quality of Jingpo Lake. The further scoring results from the 26 sites showed that the water quality of Jingpo Lake was fair to good. The results of analyses between PII and major environmental factors indicated that water temperature (WT), transparency (SD), dissolved oxygen (DO), potassium permanganate (CODMn) and total nitrogen (TN) were the main factors influencing on the composition and distribution of phytoplankton and zooplankton. Additionally, more metrics belonging to habitat, hydrology, physics and chemistry should be considered for the PII, so as to establish comprehensive assessment system which can reflect the community structure of aquatic organisms, physical and chemical characteristics of water environment, human activities, etc

Phase diagram of superconducting vortex ratchet motion in a superlattice with noncentrosymmetry

Ratchet motion of superconducting vortices, which is a directional flow of vortices in superconductors, is highly useful for exploring quantum phenomena and developing superconducting devices, such as superconducting diode and microwave antenna. However, because of the challenges in the quantitative characterization of the dynamic motion of vortices, a phase diagram of the vortex ratchet motion is still missing, especially in the superconductors with low dimensional structures. Here we establish a quantitative phase diagram of the vortex ratchet motion in a highly anisotropic superlattice superconductor, (SnS)1.17NbS2, using nonreciprocal magnetotransport. The (SnS)1.17NbS2, which possesses a layered atomic structure and noncentrosymmetry, exhibits nonreciprocal magnetotransport in a magnetic field perpendicular and parallel to the plane, which is considered a manifest of ratchet motion of superconducting vortices. We demonstrated that the ratchet motion is responsive to current excitation, magnetic field and thermal perturbation. Furthermore, we extrapolated a giant nonreciprocal coefficient ({\gamma}), which quantitatively describes the magnitude of the vortex ratchet motion, and eventually established phase diagrams of the ratchet motion of the vortices with a quantitative description. Last, we propose that the ratchet motion originates from the coexistence of pancake vortices (PVs) and Josephson vortices (JVs). The phase diagrams are desirable for controlling the vortex motion in superlattice superconductors and developing next-generation energy-efficient superconducting devices

Dynamic motion primitives-based trajectory learning for physical human-robot interaction force control

One promising function of interactive robots is to provide a specific interaction force to human users. For example, rehabilitation robots are expected to promote patients' recovery by interacting with them with a prescribed force. However, motion uncertainties of different individuals, which are hard to predict due to the varying motion speed and noises during motion, degrade the performance of existing control methods. This paper proposes a method to learn a desired reference trajectory for a robot based on dynamic motion primitives (DMPs) and iterative learning (IL). By controlling the robot to follow the generated desired reference trajectory, the interaction force can achieve a desired value. In our proposed approach, DMPs are first employed to parameterize the demonstration trajectories of the human user. Then a recursive least square (RLS)-based estimator is developed and combined with the Adam optimization method to update the trajectory parameters so that the desired reference trajectory of the robot is iteratively obtained by resolving the DMPs. Since the proposed method parameterizes the trajectories depending on the phrase variable, it removes the essential assumption of traditional IL methods where the iteration period should be invariant, and thus has improved robustness compared with the existing methods. Experiments are performed using an interactive robot to validate the effectiveness of our proposed scheme

Dynamic motion primitives-based trajectory learning for physical human-robot interaction force control

One promising function of interactive robots is to provide a specific interaction force to human users. For example, rehabilitation robots are expected to promote patients' recovery by interacting with them with a prescribed force. However, motion uncertainties of different individuals, which are hard to predict due to the varying motion speed and noises during motion, degrade the performance of existing control methods. This paper proposes a method to learn a desired reference trajectory for a robot based on dynamic motion primitives (DMPs) and iterative learning (IL). By controlling the robot to follow the generated desired reference trajectory, the interaction force can achieve a desired value. In our proposed approach, DMPs are first employed to parameterize the demonstration trajectories of the human user. Then a recursive least square (RLS)-based estimator is developed and combined with the Adam optimization method to update the trajectory parameters so that the desired reference trajectory of the robot is iteratively obtained by resolving the DMPs. Since the proposed method parameterizes the trajectories depending on the phrase variable, it removes the essential assumption of traditional IL methods where the iteration period should be invariant, and thus has improved robustness compared with the existing methods. Experiments are performed using an interactive robot to validate the effectiveness of our proposed scheme