SICE-ICASE International Joint Conference 2006 Oct.

18-21, 2006 in Bexco, Busan, Korea

A PID-Type Robust Controller Design for Industrial Robots with Flexible Joints
Sang-Hun Lee', Jong-Sung Hurl, Hyun-Chul Cho' and Jong-Hyeon Park2 Electro-Mechanical Research Institute, Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd., Gyeonggi, Korea
2

(Tel: +82-31-289-5071; E-mail: mrshleeLjshurlhcho@hhi.co.kr) School of Mechanical Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea (Tel: +82-2-2290-0435; E-mail: jongparkWhanyang.ac.kr)

Abstract: In this paper, a robust control algorithm is proposed for industrial robots having flexible joints. A link with flexible joint is modeled as a two-mass system, which can be represented in terms of a cascade system. The controller is designed based on a recursive process for the cascade system and the robustness is obtained in each step of the design. Especially, we design the real control part having a PID-type control structure by including the integral action. The designed robust controller has capabilities of vibration suppression and robustness against disturbances and model uncertainties, e.g., perturbations due to the changes of the payload. The effectiveness of the designed controller is investigated through several simulations on a model of industrial robot and also shown through experiments using a HILS (Hardware In the Loop Simulation) system incorporating a small size manipulator. Keywords: Flexible Joint Control, Recursive Design, Nonlinear H0 Control, PID-Type Robust Control.

1. INTRODUCTION
Recently, there are increasing demands from industries for improved robot motion performance to achieve given tasks more accurately, quickly, and without vibration. Many model-based control algorithms have been suggested to suppress residual vibration of robots with joint flexibility which can be modelled as a two-mass system. These control algorithms were effective to some extent in suppressing the inherent vibration of flexible joint robots [1-5]. However, performance deterioration has been observed under the parameter uncertainties or disturbances. In industrial robots such as the one shown in Fig. 1, parameter uncertainties mainly come from the pose variation of the robot or uncertain payload of the robot. And the disturbances usually come from the forces at the end-effector, such as clamping force of the spot welding gun [5]. It is necessary for the controllers to maintain good performance in spite of such uncertainties and disturbances. We adopt a recursive robust control design method for a nonlinear cascade system [6]. In the design method, firstly we design a fictitious control for the first subsystem using the nonlinear Hr control as if the subsystem has an independent control, and then design a real control for the overall system so that the second subsystem may effectively track the previously designed fictitious control. In two-mass system case which represents the joint flexibility of industrial robot manipulators, the first subsystem is the link side dynamics and the second subsystem is the motor side dynamics driven by the driving torque input. The link of the robot cannot be controlled directly by the driving torque from motor because of elastic interconnecting mechanism.

Therefore we assume that there is a fictitious control in position of the motor angle of the link dynamics for the robust stabilization of the link dynamics. Because the fictitious control is not a real control, we design the real control recursively to make the overall system robustly stable. In industrial robots, angular sensors are located generally on the motor side, so it is desirable that major control effort is made on motor side. Thus in this paper, for strengthening the motor side control action, the real control part is designed to have a PID-type control structure by inputting the integral action. The effectiveness of the designed controller is investigated through simulations on a model of industrial robot and also shown through experiments on a HILS system having two-mass system characteristics [7]. The results show that the designed robust controller has vibration suppression capability and robustness against the model uncertainties such as perturbations in load inertia.

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2. DESIGN A ROBUST CONTROLLER FOR THE FLEXIBLE JOINT

2.1 Two-Mass System: Model of the Flexible Joint

The flexible joint of an industrial robot can be described by a two-mass system as shown in Figure 2, which is composed of a driving motor, a torsional spring and a link [8]. The joints of the manipulator with a flexible connection cause unwanted vibration. Joint flexibility usually comes from the reduction gears which magnify and transmit the driving motor torque to the link.

as if the subsystem had an independent control, and then designs the real control for the overall system so that the second subsystem effectively tracks the previously designed fictitious control. In the two-mass system case, which represents the joint flexibility of industrial robot manipulators, the first subsystem is the link side dynamics and the second subsystem is the motor side dynamics driven by the driving torque input. As mentioned above, the link motion of the robot cannot be directly controlled by the driving torque because of elastic interconnecting mechanism. Therefore we assume that there is a fictitious control in the position of the motor angle Om of the link dynamics of Eq. (1), for the robust stabilization of the link dynamics. Because the fictitious control is not a real control, we design the real control recursively to make the overall system robustly stable.
2.2.1 Fictitious Controller Design Firstly, we design the fictitious control for the first subsystem, the link dynamics. The design procedure of the fictitious control Of consists of two phases: at first, a model based control is derived from the nominal dynamic equation to regulate the position and velocity error in link side, and then a robust control is designed to maintain the tracking performance against model uncertainties. The fictitious control input is expressed as (2) Of = Of. + rorf

Fig. 2 Two-mass system.

The motion of the two-mass system can be expressed by two coupled dynamics equations. One is for the robot link side dynamics and the other is for the motor side dynamics as follows
0L L
=

B.

JL

L0

JL

OL

+ JLr

08+ +Jr jm SL+J m=Jm tmL jm-Jr2 0+

m

B.

1I1

where Jm and JL are the moments of inertia, Bm and BL are damping coefficients, Om and OL are the angles of the motor and link, respectively. K is the stiffness coefficient of the joint, r is the gear reduction ratio, and rm is the motor torque. In this two-mass system model, the motor dynamics is actuated by the driving torque and the link dynamics is actuated by the spring torque generated by the angular difference between motor and link. So it is considered as a cascade system which has a series connection of two subsystems, the motor dynamics and the link dynamics.
2.2. Design of Robust Controller: a Recursive Controller Design Procedure On industrial robots, the parameter uncertainties usually come from the pose variation of the robot or uncertain payload the robot handles. And the disturbances usually come from the forces on the end-effector, such as the operation of the spot welding guns the robot holds [5]. It is necessary for the controllers to maintain good performance in spite of these uncertainties and disturbances. Yim and Park suggested a recursive robust control design method for a nonlinear cascade system [6]. In the design method, one designs at first a fictitious control for the first subsystem using the nonlinear HX control

where Ofm is the model based control term and Of, is the robust control term. Using Eq. (1), we design the model based control, Ofm , which controls the nominal model by canceling out the dynamic term and transforms the link-side dynamics to an affine form for robust control, as

Ojm

(JLd + BLOd)+ rod

(3)

where Od is the desired trajectory of the link, K, JL and BL are nominal values of K, JL and BL Substituting Of of Eq. (2) for Om of link dynamics equation of Eq. (1) and utilizing Eq. (3),
0

=_LO~_

JL

=J

B.~L

L0

JL JL r K OL+ K ~L+ KB. JL J K J KL+O+ Jd J+

OL+JKr(Of+rOf)

LKJ..

OdK Of,r*
(4)

Next, we design the robust new state variable vector as

S
= =

control0f,.

Let s be a
5r

.0 -

Then the link dynamics of Eq. (4) is re-expressed by the state s of Eq. (5) as

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As+Blw+B2/Of
_

B l s + K lw + L

JL

JL

_JL

_JL

Of,0r

where w again represents the uncertainty as

w

To obtain the solution to Eq. (9), pre-multiply and post-multiply the inequality with positive definite matrices p-T and P-' respectively. Then it is transformed into a LMI (Linear Matrix Inequality) by the Schur complement as Q rAQ+ QAT + (/y2)BBT -B2(DTD) B2 <0 (14)
where Q = P-1. The LMI can be solved by an efficient convex optimization algorithm [ 1]. In (14), the system matrices A and B1 are uncertain. Consequently the solution Q of LMI Eq. (14) is not directly acquired. But if the matrices forming the LMI vary in some bounded space of the sets of matrices, i.e.,

(K

K)

hJ7KKJd

K)

K( JL

J1,

KOf

(7)

Now a new state variable z, which represents the performance of the system, is introduced to design the robust control based on HOO control theory.
z=

Hs + DOfr, HTD = 0, DTD > 0

(8)

The robust control design for the system Eq. (6) is described in the Theorem 1 [9,10].
Theorem 1: Given y> 0, suppose that there exists a semi-positive definite matrix P satisfying PTA A AP+ (1 y2)PTBBT P PTB2(DTD)- BTP + HTH < 0 (9)

[A,B1,B2,H,D]E CO{[Ai,Bi, B2'H, D]

ie{I,2.

(15)

where Co denotes the convex hull and L is the number of vertices of bounded space. And if LAIQ + QAf + (11y2)B1B1T -B2(DTD) B2 <0 (16) have a common nonsingular matrix solution Q for all i eG{1,2,...,L}, then Q is also a solution to Eq. (14) [12]. Therefore the robust fictitious control of Eq. (2) is finally re-written as

and there exists a nonnegative energy storage function E > 0 such that -= 2sTPT . Then the robust control

satisfying L2 -gain < y is

-fr (DTD)

as

BfTPs

(10)

where P is called as the robust gain of the fictitious control. And the derivative of energy storage function satisfies
E<

Of Ofm +r of=J= d +BLOd)+rod-r (DTD) B2Ps (17)

=

/2

12

(11)

given as
E=

Proof Derivative of energy storage function E is

as 2s TPT (As+Blw+B2Ofr)
s (P'A + AP)s + 2s'P
_

(12)

we obtain
F

assumption Eq. (9) and the suggested control Eq. (10),

w 211y112 z12 +ST(PTA+AP)s+(11y2)STPTB1BTPs ||w-( w (11 72)B1IS + zii 1 TH S TOD~D _-/22' 2I 2fr~~ 2+S H f Ofrt TDf +2s H DOft
2
T

Introducing

(r)w + B2Or) y/2 11w_2 IIzI12 into Eq. (12) and using the
S
f

2.2.2 Robust Real Controller Design In this step, we drive the actual control input m using a positive definite storage function, which enables the overall system to maintain HX stability characteristics. Since the fictitious control Otf designed in the first step is not a real control input, we have to design a real control input for the motor angle to track the fictitious control. In this study, the real controller includes a PID type control term by inputting an integral action [13]. Now we define a fictitious velocity command f , and errors between the fictitious motor angle and velocity and the real ones as follows
el
=

Of,

e2 =m

f, e3

Je

(18)

w2 |1WV12

IIZ12

/2 |w

(1 /y2)BfTPs||

||DOft + D-TB2TPsI

Using O,m =Of + e1, the link side equation of Eq. (1) becomes
s
=

+sT [PT A + AP + (1/ 2)PT BBTp PTB2(DTD)

<

lB2TP

+HTHI 2sTHTDOf, y/2 1111V12 IZI12.

s+
-

r As+Blw+B20f, +B2 r

(19)

(13) = -(DTD)-'Bf Ps yields a closed Thus the control 0 loop with L2 -gain less than or equal to y.

To make the overall system satisfy the HOO norm condition, we define a positive definite storage function V as follows
V = E + {eTe1 +ee2 +e3e3 }

(20)

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By using Eq. (20) and the motor dynamics of Eq. (1), we get V7 as follows * . +eTe+e2e2 T- T- +e3e3 TV=
e =2s TP (As + Blw + B20fr) + 2sPZ B+2

Finally, V becomes to satisfy the following HX condition,

f

< 72

IIIV2

lz112

(28)

eT+e22 + e3e3
+ eTel - eTe

Eventually we made the overall system satisfying the HX stability condition.

<v /2

+ ejT (2 BTPs) + ejT (e+ e3) + eT IIWI12w2 IIZII2z~~~~~~~~~~~~

=y2 |W|12

+e3-+e |z12 +elT2B2Ps+elel 2 +e2e2el ee)

2 z +e 2B sr =y2 11W12 IZ 2 + eT (_2 BPs -Sf + e3 + Cf

3. SIMULATION AND EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION

In this chapter, we verify the robust performance of the proposed controller against the load side inertia perturbations through simulations and experiments. The performance of the proposed controller is compared with that of the conventional model based state feedback controller [5].

Bm jOi

. K K 1I + + 0. Om 20 0L T-f J jr L Jmi m mi

From Eq. (21), cf and iTm can be determined as follows to guarantee the HX stability of the overall system.
coJf
=

2 BTPs_ ee Ie,12 3 +Of --B2 ae I 1 -e 1113r

Jm2
r)}

lp
el a2e2

(22)

Jm[{
JmK(

3.1 Simulation Results The target model of the simulation is the first axis of a heavy payload industrial robot which handles 165kg load as shown in Fig. 1. We adopt a sliding mode observer to estimate the states of link side which cannot be measured directly. We simulate the situation where there are + 20% perturbations on the load side inertia

kz-j)
e22)

JL -

152.5 r
RB Controller

Here, al and a2 are gains which adjust the convergent ratio, and p1 and p2 are functions which suppress the uncertainties. We use the terms lie112 and
to make cf be differentiable. Substituting Eqs. (22) and (23) into Eq. (21), V becomes
V7<

152 0

_ 151.5 a 1

||elll3

0a)
<

VCt\ VS Controller
l

151-

150.5

llwl2 llzl2 aIle,

I_
-

_a

-le
A2

+el Al

_Ile
1

(24)
-

150 _ 1.8

1.9

2.1 2.2 time (sec)

2.3

2.4

2.5

Ie,11

p+

j-

+8 )-

J.

e2T

p2

(a) link angle

2.345
2.34
x

Ie2l +8C2

104
RB Controller

where Al and A2
Al
2-K

are

uncertain terms as follows

iL JL)

KJPs
(25)
KJK
K+
K

2.335

-2 33

VS Controller

A2

J. -J.
m.
+

a-)2.325-

BJB
j

OO
to satisfy (26).
I+

(26)

2.322.315 2.31 1.8

/
1.9
2

We design

p1 and p2
p>

2.1 2.2 time (sec)

2.3

2.4

2.5

(b) motor angle

(27)

P1> 2A

KIII+ 13{

IA12

l21

5908

4
:a

RB Controller
Controller

3-

> 2
1

1E

1.9

2.2 2.1 time (sec)

2.3

2.4

2.5

(c) link velocity

2000 1800 1600 1400 1200 1000 o 800 600 400 200 RB Controller VS Controller

< Control ler >

(a) Schematic diagram

1.8

1.9

2.1 2.2 time (sec)

2.3

2.4

2.5

enc

motor

(d) motor velocity Fig. 3 Simulation results.

The test motion has an S type reference trajectory of link angle, moving from 0 degree to 152.056 degree and the total travel duration is 2 seconds. This is a quite severe motion of the robot, which requires nearly 80% of maximum torque and uses maximum motor speed around 3000 rpm at the highest region. In the figures of link and motor angles, (a) and (b) of the Fig. 3, proposed controller (RB controller in the figure) shows more uniform response in the end of the trajectory than the response of the model based state feedback controller (VS controller in the figure). The uniformity of angular velocities is clearly shown in the figures. From the simulation results, both controllers show robust stability, but proposed controller has smaller variation of position and velocity tracking performance against the perturbation of the load side inertia than the model based state feedback controller. The proposed controller has better tracking performance in the sense of settling time, too.
3.2 Experimental Results In this section, the robustness of the designed controller is compared with that of the conventional state feedback controller by the experiments using the HILS (Hardware In the Loop Simulation) system shown in Fig. 4. This system consists of a 200W AC servo motor, a load, a flexible shaft and two encoders measuring motor and link angles, respectively. The characteristic of the system can be easily adjusted by

(b) Photo of the experimental hardware Fig. 4 Experimental system.

changing the shaft and the load properly for the desired applications. To compare the robustness of two controllers, parameter uncertainties in load inertia JL are considered. Experiments are performed for the overestimated (JL =1.2J,L) and underestimated (JL =O.8JL) cases as well as a nominal one ( JL = JL ), where JL is an estimated JL 150

0
40

0.5

1.5

Time [sec]

2.5

3.5

4.5

20
10

::::::::
0

........
. ..

:.

0.5

1.5

3 2.5 Time [sec]

3.5

4.6

Fig 5. Desired angle and velocity. Figs. 6 and 7 show that the experimental results with the desired trajectories shown in Fig. 5. In the experimental results, the proposed controller (RB Controller) shows more uniform trajectory than the

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model based state feedback controller (VS Controller) against the load side perturbations. As shown in the experimental results, proposed method has improved robust performance while the conventional state feedback controller shows large performance deviations.

acn

3.9

3.9%

4.05 4.1 Time [sec]

4.15

4.2

4.25

Fig. 6 Link angle (dotted: reference, solid: exact JL' dashed: 0.8JL, dash-dot: 1.2JL ).
0.4

0.2
8 0.1

00
-

.1

-0.2 -0.3

L
4

-0 4 _

4.05

4.1

4.15

4.2 4.25 Time [sec]

4.3

4.35

4.4

Fig. 7 Link velocity (dotted: reference, solid: exact JL' dashed: 0.8JL, dash-dot: 1.2JL).

4. CONCLUSIONS
A robust control algorithm was proposed for flexible joints of industrial robots. The flexible joint was modeled as a two-mass system which has characteristics of a cascade system. The controller design was based on a recursive process for the cascade system and the robustness was obtained in each step of the design. Especially, we designed the real control part having a PID-type control structure by including the integral action. The designed robust controller has vibration suppression capability and robustness against the disturbances and model uncertainties such as perturbations in load inertia. The effectiveness of the designed controller was investigated through simulations on a model of industrial robot and also shown through experiments by a HILS system.

No.10, pp.1122-1137, 1993. [2] J.K. Ji, S.H. Song, S.K. Sul and M.H. Park, "Speed controller for torsional vibration suppression of 2-mass motor drive system," Trans. KIEE, Vol. 42, No. 8, pp. 44-53, 1993. [3] R. Oguro and K. Tomita, "Machine control technology in servo systems," Yaskawa Technical Review, Vol. 62, No.4, pp.274-279, 1998. [4] S.H. Lee, J.G. Yim, J.S. Hur and J.H. Park, "A gain-scheduling for the vibration suppression servo control of articulated robots," Proc. of Int. Conf on Control, Automation, and Systems, pp. 2725-2730, 2003. [5] J.S. Hur, S.H. Lee and J.H. Song, "State observer based vibration suppression for an industrial robot," Proc. of 1st Korea-China Joint Workshop on Robotics, pp. 162-166, 2001. [6] J.G. Yim and J.H. Park, "Robust control of robot manipulator with actuators," KSME International Journal, Vol. 15, No. 3, pp. 320-326, 2001. [7] S.W. Son, S.H. Lee and J.S. Hur, "Gain-scheduling of Acceleration Estimator for Low-velocity Measurement with Encoders," Proc. of Int. Conf on Control, Automation and Systems, Jun. 2005. [8] M. Spong, "Modeling and control of elastic joint robots," ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement and Control, Vol. 109, pp. 310-319, 1987. [9] M. Green and D. Limebeer, Linear Robust Control, Prentice Hall, 1995. [10] A. Schaft, "L2-gain analysis of nonlinear systems and nonlinear state feedback H-inf control," IEEE Trans. on Automatic Control, Vol. 37, No. 6, pp. 770-784, 1992. [11] S. Boyd, E.E. Ghaoui, E. Feron and V. Balakrishnan, Linear Matrix Inequalities in System and Control Theory, SIAM Books, 1994. [12] J. H. Park and J. Yim, "Nonlinear H, Control of Robotic Manipulators," Proc. of IEEE Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, pp. 866-871,

REFERENCES [1] N. Matsui and Y. Hori, "Advanced technologies in motor control," Trans. of IEE Japan, Vol.113-D,

[13] S. H. Lee, Controller Design for Industrial Robotic Manipulators with Flexible Joint using a Gain-scheduling Method and a Robust Backstepping Method, Ph.D. Thesis, Hanyang Univ., Korea, Aug. 2006.

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