Input torque sensitivity to uncertain parameters in biped robot

Input torque is the main power to maintain bipedal walking of robot, and can be calculated from trajectory planning and dynamic modeling on biped robot. During bipedal walking, the input torque is usually required to be adjusted due to some uncertain parameters arising from objective or subjective factors in the dynamical model to maintain the pre-planned stable trajectory. Here, a planar 5-link biped robot is used as an illustrating example to investigate the effects of uncertain parameters on the input torques. Kine-matic equations of the biped robot are firstly established by the third-order spline curves based on the trajectory planning method, and the dynamic modeling is accomplished by taking both the certain and uncertain parameters into account. Next, several evaluation indices on input torques are intro-duced to perform sensitivity analysis of the input torque with respect to the uncertain parameters. Finally, based on the Monte Carlo simulation, the values of evaluation indices on input torques are presented, from which all the robot param-eters are classified into three categories, i.e., strongly sensi-tive, sensitive and almost insensitive parameters.

Conception and Design of Active Balancer for Planar Mechanisms

The dynamic balancing is an important issue in mechanism design. For the existing balancing methods, both passive and active ones, there is still room for improvement in adaplability and independency. In view of this, a concept of active balancer is developed as a new solution for the dynamic balancing with more flexibility. The proposed balancer is an independent additional device with a control system inside, which consists of a two-degree-of-freedom （DOF） linkage and a controllable motor, and can be attached to a machine expediently with little change to its original structure and motion. One of the two inputs of the two-DOF linkage shares the same shaft with its output, which is connected to the input shaft of a machine to be balanced and driven by the original actuator. The other input is driven by the control motor. By properly selecting the speed trajectories of the control motor and link parameters of the two-DOF linkage, one or more dynamic effects of the mechanisms can be minimized or eliminated adaptively. The design procedure of the active balancer is put forward and a two-step optimization is developed to find out optimal design parameters of the balancer for various design requirements and constraints. Taking a force-balanced crank-rocker mechanism as the reference mechanism, numerical examples are given to illustrate the design procedure. The balancing effects of the proposed balancer are compared with those of the existing adding dyads （DYAD） method. The results show that the introduction of the control system provides the active balancer with better balancing effect and more flexibility than the DYAD method. A considerable reduction in the dynamic effects （input torque, shaking moment and shaking force） can be achieved for different balancing object by designing the structural and control parameters of the balancer, and the deterioration of dynamic performance caused by alterative working conditions can be compensated effectively by redesigning the control parameters.

Saturated output feedback tracking control for robot manipulators via fuzzy self-tuning

This paper concerns the problem of output feedback tracking (OFT) control with bounded torque inputs of robot manipulators, and proposes a novel saturated OFT controller based on fuzzy self-tuning proportional and derivative (PD) gains. First, aiming to accomplish the whole closed-loop control with only position measurements, a linear filter is involved to generate a pseudo velocity error signal. Second, different from previous strategies, the arctangent function with error-gain is applied to ensure the boundedness of the torque control input, and an explicit system stability proof is made by using the theory of singularly perturbed systems. Moreover, a fuzzy self-tuning PD regulator, which guarantees the continuous stability of the overall closed-loop system, is added to obtain an adaptive performance in tackling the disturbances during tracking control. Simulation showed that the proposed controller gains more satisfactory tracking results than the others, with a better dynamic response performance and stronger anti-disturbance capability.