New Method for Predicting the Motion Responses of A Flexible Joint Multi-Body Floating System to Irregular Waves

A new hybrid method of frequency domain and time domain is developed in this paper to predict the motion responses of a flexibly joint multi-body floating system to irregular waves. The main idea of the method is that the three-dimensional frequency method is used to obtain the hydrodynamic coefficients and the response equations are solved in time domain step by step. All the forces can be obtained at the same time. The motions and nonlinear mooring forces of a box type six-body floating system are predicted. A comparison of the theoretical method-based Solutions with experimental results has shown good agreement.

Stability and oscillations in a slow-fast flexible joint system with transformation delay

Flexible joints are usually used to transfer velocities in robot systems and may lead to delays in motion transformation due to joint flexibility. In this paper, a linkrotor structure connected by a flexible joint or shaft is firstly modeled to be a slow-fast delayed system when moment of inertia of the lightweight link is far less than that of the heavy rotor. To analyze the stability and oscillations of the slowfast system, the geometric singular perturbation method is extended, with both slow and fast manifolds expressed analytically. The stability of the slow manifold is investigated and critical boundaries are obtained to divide the stable and the unstable regions. To study effects of the transformation delay on the stability and oscillations of the link, two quantitatively different driving forces derived from the negative feedback of the link are considered. The results show that one of these two typical driving forces may drive the link to exhibit a stable state and the other kind of driving force may induce a relaxation oscillation for a very small delay. However, the link loses stability and undergoes regular periodic and bursting oscillation when the transformation delay is large. Basically, a very small delay does not affect the stability of the slow manifold but a large delay affects substantially.

Design of Robust Controller for Flexible Joint Robot with Nonlinear Friction Characteristics

A robust controller method for flexible joint robot considering the effect caused by nonlinear friction was presented.The nonlinear friction was denoted as inverse additive output uncertainty relative to the nominal model in our work,based on which the describing function was analyzed in frequency domain,and the weighting function of nonlinear friction was further calculated as well. By combining the friction uncertainty,the mixed sensitivity H∞optimization was proposed as the benchmark for controller design, which also leaded to good performance of robustness. Furthermore,unstructured perturbation to the system was analyzed so that the stability was guaranteed. Simulation results show that the proposed controller can provide excellent tracking and regulation performance.

Basic Characteristics of a New Flexible Pneumatic Bending Joint

Several typical flexible pneumatic actuators （FPA） and different mechanical models describing their behaviors have been proposed, however, it is difficult to balance compliance and load capacity in conventional designs, and these models still have limitations in predicting behavior of FPAs. A new flexible pneumatic bending joint （FPBJ） with special anisotropic rigidity structure is proposed. The FPBJ is developed as an improvement with regard to existing types of FPA, and its principal characteristic is derived from the special anisotropic rigidity structure. With this structure, the load capacity in the direction perpendicular to bending plane is strengthened. The structure of the new FPBJ is explained and a mathematical model is derived based on Euler-Bernoulli beam model and Hook’s law. To obtain optimum design and usage, some key structure parameters and input-output characteristics are simulated. The simulation results reveal that the relationship between the structure parameters and FPBJ’s bending angle is nonlinear. At last, according to the simulation results, the FPBJ is manufactured with optional parameters and tested. The experimental results show that the joint’s statics characteristics are reflected by the mathematical model accurately when the FPBJ is deflated. The maximum relative error between simulation and experimental results is less than 6%. However, the model still has limitations. When the joint is inflated, the maximum relative error reaches 20%. This paper proposes a new flexible pneumatic bending joint which has sufficient load capacity and compliance, and the mathematical model provides theoretical guidance for the FPBJ’s structure design.

Fractional Order Linear Active Disturbance Rejection Control for Linear Flexible Joint System

A linear flexible joint system using fractional order linear active disturbance rejection control is studied in this paper.With this control scheme,the performance against disturbances,uncertainties,and attenuation is enhanced.Linear active disturbance rejection control(LADRC)is mainly based on an extended state observer(ESO)technology.A fractional integral(FOI)action is combined with the LADRC technique which proposes a hybrid control scheme like FO-LADRC.Incorporating this FOI action improves the robustness of the standard LADRC.The set-point tracking of the proposed FO-LADRC scheme is designed by Bode’s ideal transfer function(BITF)based robust closed-loop concept,an appropriate pole placement method.The effectiveness of the proposed FO-LADRC scheme is illustrated through experimental results on the linear flexible joint system(LFJS).The results show the enhancement of the robustness with disturbance rejection.Furthermore,a comparative analysis is presented with the results obtained using the integer-order LADRC and FO-LADRC scheme.

Dynamic analysis of multi-link spatial flexible manipulator arms with dynamic stiffening effects

The dynamics for multi-link spatial flexible manipulator arms is investigated. The system considered here is an N-flexible-link manipulator driven by N DC-motors through N revolute flexiblejoints. The flexibility of each flexible joint is modeled as a linearly elastic torsional spring, and the mass of the joint is also considered. For the flexibility of the link, all of the stretching deformation, bending deformation and the torsional deformation are included. The complete governing equations of motion of the system are derived via the Lagrange equations. The nonlinear description of the deformation field of the flexible link is adopted in the dynamic modeling, and thus the dynamic stiffening effects are captured. Based on this model, a general-purpose software package for dynamic simulation of multi-link spatial flexible manipulator arms is developed. Several illustrative examples are given to validate the algorithm presented in this paper and to indicate that not only dynamic stiffening effects but also the flexibility of the structure has significant influence on the dynamic performance of the manipulator.

Robust dynamic surface control of flexible joint robots using recurrent neural networks

A robust neuro-adaptive controller for uncertain flexible joint robots is presented. This control scheme integrates H^infinity disturbance attenuation design and recurrent neural network adaptive control technique into the dy- namic surface control framework. Two recurrent neural networks are used to adaptively learn the uncertain functions in a flexible joint robot. Then, the effects of approximation error and filter error on the tracking performance are attenuated to a prescribed level by the embedded H-infinity controller, so that the desired H-infinity tracking performance can be achieved. Finally. simulation results verifv the effectiveness of the nronosed control scheme.

海洋管状结构轴向荷载下K型接头与外板局部节点柔度的数值分析与讨论

The Local Joint Flexibility(_(LJF))of steel K-joints reinforced with external plates under axial loads is investigated in this paper.For this aim,firstly,a finite element(FE)model was produced and verified with the results of several experimental tests.In the next step,a set of 150 FE models was generated to assess the effect of the brace angle(θ),the stiffener plate size(ηandλ),and the joint geometry(γ,τ,ξ,andβ)on the_(LJF)factor(f_(LJF)).The results showed that using the external plates can decrease 81%of the f_(LJF).Moreover,the reinforcing effect of the reinforcing plate on the f_(LJF)is more remarkable in the joints with smallerβ.Also,the effect of theγon the f_(LJF)ratio can be ignored.Despite the important effect of the f_(LJF)on the behavior of tubular joints,there is not available any study or equation on the f_(LJF)in any reinforced K-joints under axial load.Consequently,using the present FE results,a design parametric equation is proposed.The equation can reasonably predict the f_(LJF)in the reinforced K-joints under axial load.

Sliding Mode and PI Controllers for Uncertain Flexible Joint Manipulator

This paper is dealing with the problem of tracking control for uncertain flexible joint manipulator robots driven by brushless direct current motor(BDCM). Flexibility of joint in the manipulator constitutes one of the most important sources of uncertainties. In order to achieve high performance, all parts of the manipulator including actuator have been modeled. To cancel the tracking error, a hysteresis current controller and speed controllers have been developed. To evaluate the effectiveness of speed controllers, a comparative study between proportional integral(PI) and sliding mode controllers has been performed. Finally, simulation results carried out in the Matlab simulink environment demonstrate the high precision of sliding mode controller compared with PI controller in the presence of uncertainties of joint flexibility.

Response of underground pipeline through fault fracture zone to random ground motion

It is assumed that a pipeline is laid through a vertical fault fracture zone, and is excited by seismic ground motion modelled as stationary stochastic process. For horizontal incidence of waves, the cross-PSD （Power Spectral Density） function is developed using wave propagation theory, while for vertical incidence of waves the cross-PSD function is composed by auto-PSD model, coherence model and site response model. As the seismic input, the eross-PSD function is used to calculate the the axial and lateral seismic responses of underground pipeline through the fracture zone. The results show that the incident directions of seismic waves, width and soil property of the fracture zone have great influence on underground pipeline. It is suggested that the flexible joints with appropriate stiffness should be added into the pipeline near the interfaces between the fracture zone and the surrounded media.

A New Adaptive Tracking Control Approach for Uncertain Flexible Joint Robot System

The adaptive tracking problem for uncertain flexible joint robot system is studied in this paper. By utilizing the adaptive backstepping method, an adaptive controller is constructed at the beginning. By utilizing the modified adaptive dynamic surface control technique, a new adaptive controller is presented afterwards to avoid the overparametrization problem and the explosion of complexity problem existing in the adaptive backstepping method. All the signals of the closed-loop system are rendered globally/semi-globally uniformly ultimately bounded, and the tracking error can be made arbitrarily small by tuning the designed parameters. A simulation example is given to show the validity of the control algorithm.

Spiking-free HGO-based DSC for flexible joint manipulator

The tracking control problem for Flexible Joint Manipulator Control System(FJMCS)with unmeasurable states is addressed in this paper.Firstly,a High-Gain Observer(HGO)is constructed to estimate the unmeasurable states and the uncertainties.Then,a Dynamic Surface Control(DSC)scheme is developed by using the estimation of HGO.The newly proposed controller has two advantages over the existing methods:(A)a novel Spike Suppression Function(SSF)is developed to avoid the estimation spike problem in the existing HGO-based controllers.(B)Unlike the existing observer-based partial feedback control scheme that can only estimate the unmeasurable states,the proposed HGO can estimate both the unmeasurable states and uncertainties.The closed-loop system stability is proved by the Lyapunov theory.Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller.

Identification and Control of Flexible Joint Robot Using Multi-Time-Scale Neural Network

In this paper,a new identification and control scheme for the flexible joint robotic manipulator is proposed.Firstly,by defining some new state variables,the commonly used dynamic equations of the flexible joint robotic manipulators are transformed into the standard form of a singularly perturbed model.Subsequently,an optimal bounded ellipsoid algorithm based identification scheme using multi-time-scale neural network is proposed to identify the unknown system dynamic equations.Lastly,by using the singular perturbation theory,an indirect adaptive controller based on the identified model is proposed to control the system such that the joint angles can track the given reference signals.The closed-loop stability of the whole system is proved,and the effectiveness of the proposed schemes is verified by simulations.

Takagi–Sugeno Fuzzy Modeling and Control for Effective Robotic Manipulator Motion

Robotic manipulators are widely used in applications that require fast and precise motion.Such devices,however,are prompt to nonlinear control issues due to the flexibility in joints and the friction in the motors within the dynamics of their rigid part.To address these issues,the Linear Matrix Inequalities(LMIs)and Parallel Distributed Compensation(PDC)approaches are implemented in the Takagy–Sugeno Fuzzy Model(T-SFM).We propose the following methodology;initially,the state space equations of the nonlinear manipulator model are derived.Next,a Takagy–Sugeno Fuzzy Model(T-SFM)technique is used for linearizing the state space equations of the nonlinear manipulator.The T-SFM controller is developed using the Parallel Distributed Compensation(PDC)method.The prime concept of the designed controller is to compensate for all the fuzzy rules.Furthermore,the Linear Matrix Inequalities(LMIs)are applied to generate adequate cases to ensure stability and control.Convex programming methods are applied to solve the developed LMIs problems.Simulations developed for the proposed model show that the proposed controller stabilized the system with zero tracking error in less than 1.5 s.