Adaptive nonlinear vibration control of a Cartesian exible

manipulator driven by a ballscrew mechanism

Zhi-cheng Qiu
n
School of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, PR China
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 9 October 2010
Received in revised form
1 January 2012
Accepted 5 January 2012
Available online 26 January 2012
Keywords:
Flexible Cartesian manipulator
Active vibration suppression
Characteristic model
Nonlinear control
Adaptive control
a b s t r a c t
A exible Cartesian manipulator is a coupling system with a moving rigid body and
exible structures. Thus, vibration suppression problem must be solved to guarantee
the stability and control accuracy. A characteristic model based nonlinear golden
section adaptive control (CMNGSAC) algorithm is implemented to suppress the
vibration of a exible Cartesian smart material manipulator driven by a ballscrew
mechanism using an AC servomotor. The system modeling is derived to recognize the
dynamical characteristics. The closed loop stability is analyzed based on the model.
Also, an experimental setup is constructed to verify the adopted method. Experimental
comparison studies are conducted for modal frequencies identication and active
vibration control of the exible manipulator. The active vibration control experiments
include set-point vibration control responses, vibration suppression under resonant
excitation and simultaneous translating and vibration suppression using different
control methods. The experimental results demonstrate that the controller can suppress
both the larger and the lower amplitude vibration near the equilibrium point
effectively.
& 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Space manipulators should be as light as possible in order to reduce their launching cost [1]. They are usually made of
lightweight materials to help launch. Space robots usually have very low damping ratios, high dimensional order and
parametric uncertainties in dynamics. Thus, unwanted vibrations of the exible links will be caused unavoidably [2,3]. In
order to meet the increasing demand for high end-position accuracy robotic systems coupled with needs of space
application, the issue on modeling and active vibration control for such a exible Cartesian robot system is rather difcult
and challenging.
The dynamical modeling and active control of a exible Cartesian robot have attracted attention of many researchers in
the last few decades [511]. In most of previous research works, servomotors and piezoelectric patches are used as
actuators to achieve desired end-point position while suppressing unwanted vibration. PZT (lead zirconate titanate) as a
kind of smart material was effectively implemented to control the mechanical vibration of exible structures [4]. In the
vibration control of exible robot arms, boundary feedback schemes are employed in order to damp the vibrations and
dissipate energy [5]. Hou and Tsui [6] formulated a mathematical model for a exible robot arm on a moving base with a
payload at the tip end using a fourth order partial differential equation with boundary conditions. They show that such
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Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing
0888-3270/$ - see front matter & 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ymssp.2012.01.002
n
Tel.: 86 20 8711 4635 (O).
E-mail addresses: zhchqiu@scut.edu.cn, zhchqiu@126.com
Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 30 (2012) 248266
a system is both controllable and observable in an innite dimensional Hilbert space, through the state-space formulation.
Luo et al. [7] proposed a shear force feedback control method to suppress vibrations arising from structural exibility of
Cartesian type robots. Dadfarnia et al. [8,9] presented theoretical and experimental results of an observer-based control
strategy and a Lyapunov-based controller for regulating problem of a exible Cartesian robot. Ge et al. [10,11] presented a
robust distributed controller and an asymptotically stable end-point regulation controller for a single-link Cartesian smart
materials robot. Both simulation and experimental results veried the good performance in suppression of residual
vibrations under the environment of disturbances.
Although great progress has been achieved in this eld, the issue is still far from completely solved. The exible robot
system is of innite dimensionality. Once using the technique of modal truncation, undesired residual vibrations make
exible robots difcult to control with high precision [10]. For exible Cartesian robot, the ballscrew is a most popular
driving mechanism utilized in high-speed and long stroke positioning stages. However, due to the backlash and nonlinear
friction force between the ballscrew and nut, it is difcult to obtain sub-micrometer resolution based on a ballscrew
mechanism [12]. The non-linear behavior of a single-link exible visco-elastic Cartesian manipulator was studied by
Pratiher and Dwivedy [13]. As to nonlinear control, Yang et al. [14] proposed a feedback nonlinear control law for the
endpoint control of a exible macromicro manipulator system. Their dynamic behavior presents a coupling between rigid
body displacements and exible modes of vibration.
These model-based controllers, originally designed for the demands of high performance, may not be easy to
implement due to uncertainties in design models, large variations of loads on the robots end-effector, ignored high
frequency dynamics and the high order of the designed controllers [7]. In order to design a satisfactory control system,
according to traditional control theory, a mathematical model that describes system dynamics must be determined
beforehand. However, it is difcult to establish their mathematical models accurately for some plants, as their
characteristics and environment may change unpredictably [15]. Even if a precise mathematical model can be established,
the order of the model is extremely high and the structure is very complicated. Unfortunately, the high-order controller is
very difcult to realize.
In general, the controller design in previous researches for exible structures control depends on the reduced order
models by modal truncation. Therefore, the problems of observation spillover and control spillover are unavoidable
due to the ignored high-frequency dynamics [7]. To solve the spillover problem in traditional modal truncation methods,
a characteristic model (CM) based adaptive control method was proposed by Wu et al. [15,16]. The high order system of
exible structures can be equivalently modeled as a second order time-varying difference equation, named as
characteristic model. It shows a new way to control large exible structures with low order controllers and avoids
the spillover problem at the same time. CM is to implement the controller from the engineering point of view. The CM
based nonlinear golden section adaptive control (CMNGSAC) algorithm was introduced in Ref. [16,17]. Using this control
law, the low amplitude residual vibration near the equilibrium point will be suppressed quickly. In recent years, several
researchers have employed the CMNGSAC algorithm for vibration control for exible structures, spacecraft attitude control
and tracking control of robotic manipulators [1519]. In order to deal with complex nonlinear system, Luo et al. [20]
presented a novel neuro-fuzzy dynamic characteristic modeling method by introducing neural network into the fuzzy
characteristic modeling control. Among the aforementioned researches, in many cases, only simulation results were
obtained. Few experiments are conducted to verify this method.
The major contribution of this paper rests on two aspects. The rst is stability analyses of the CMNGSAC algorithm via
equivalent gain adaptive regulating control algorithm, using the model of the Cartesian robot. The second is experimental
implementation of the CMNGSAC algorithm to suppress the elastic vibration of a exible smart Cartesian manipulator. In
this regard, a kind of exible Cartesian smart materials robot using a ballscrew mechanism is designed and constructed for
experimental studies. Experimental results are provided to demonstrate the satisfactory control performance and
robustness of the CMNGSAC method.
The rest of this article is organized as follows. Section 2 introduces the system and the governing equations for a exible
Cartesian smart materials robot. In Section 3, the CMNGSAC algorithm is discussed. The stability of CMNGSAC algorithm
for the closed-loop system is analyzed. In Section 4, the experimental setup of the exible Cartesian smart materials robot
is designed and constructed. And experimental comparison studies are conducted using several different control
algorithms, including proportional derivative (PD) control, positive position feedback (PPF) control and the CMNGSAC
method with respect to the exible Cartesian robot system. The experimental validation contents include the following
cases: set point vibration active control, vibration suppression under resonant excitation and simultaneous translating
motion and vibration suppression. The paper ends with conclusions in Section 5.
2. System description and mathematical modeling
The schematic diagram of the exible smart materials Cartesian robot is illustrated in Fig. 1. The exible manipulator is
a translating uniform beam clamped on the translational slider of a ballscrew drive system. An AC servomotor with a
rotary encoder is used to drive the ballscrew. PZT patches used as sensors and actuators are stuck on both surfaces of the
host beam, close to the clamped side. The vibration of the exible beam can be measured by the PZT sensor. An
acceleration sensor can also be used to measure the vibration, which is mounted close to the tip side of the beam. It is
considered as the increase of the centralized mass at the mounted position of the beam. In this work, the measured signal
Z.C. Qiu / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 30 (2012) 248266 249
of the acceleration sensor is not used for feedback control. Acceleration feedback control will be investigated in the future
research.
Based on the ideas of previous researches [2,7,10,27], a dynamic model of the exible Cartesian manipulator system
with a ballscrew mechanism is derived using Lagranges equation. The dynamics model is needed to analyze the stability
of closed-loop system as a prerequisite, and it helps to recognize the systems characteristics. For system modeling, the
following assumptions are made [2,11]: (a) the link is thin enough to satisfy the Euler beam assumptions. No axial
deformation is considered. So when the translating motion of the slider completely stops, the transverse bending vibration
of the beam is the primary motion. (b) PZT sensors and actuators are perfectly bonded to the structure. (c) The exible
manipulator is in the horizontal plane. The base of the exible manipulator can only move along the Y-axis of the plane.
(d) The effects of gravity are neglected which is always true for space applications.
It is assumed that the deection of the exible beam w(x,t) is relatively small compared with the length of the beam L.
Using the assumed modes method, the transverse deection of the mid-plane of the beam is expressed as
w(x,t) =
X
m-o
j = 1
f
j
(x)q
j
(t) =U(x)q, j =1,2,. . ., (1)
where f
j
and q
j
denote the jth mode shape function and corresponding generalized coordinate, respectively;
U(x) =[f
1
(x). . .f
j
(x). . .f
m
(x)] and q =[q
1
. . .q
j
. . .q
m
]
T
denote the modal shape function vector and generalized coordinate
vector, respectively; m is the modal number.
Actually, the boundary conditions used for dening the assumed modes of the exible moving manipulator are
dynamic-free. Moreover, the dynamic boundary condition is dependent on the moving speed produced by the motors
driving moment. Generally, the speed reduction ratio of the ballscrew system is high, and the motion speed of the slider is
comparatively low. Therefore, its high torque-to-force magnication causes the poor back driving ability. In this case, the
boundary conditions are close to those of the clamped-free beam with tip centralized mass. In addition, when the slider is
controlled to move with a constant speed, the boundary conditions are also equivalent to the clamped-free case. This can
be tested and veried in Section 4.
Since the exible manipulator is in the horizontal plane, its gravitational energy is not included. Also, the effects of the
shear displacements can be neglected because the width of the manipulator under consideration is assumed to be
signicantly larger than its thickness. In this way, the potential energy of the manipulator is related to the bending
deformation of the manipulator, and it is expressed as
E
p
=
1
2
E
b
I
b
Z
L
0
w
//
(x,t)
2
dx
1
2
X
n
i = 1
Z
x
i2
x
i1
E
pe
I
pe
w
//
(x,t)
2
dx, (2)
where E
p
is the potential energy; E
b
and I
b
=b
b
h
3
b
=12 are Youngs modulus and the moment of inertia of the beam,
respectively; E
b
I
b
is the uniform exural rigidity; E
pe
and I
pe
=b
pe
h
3
pe
=12 are Youngs modulus and the moment of inertia of
Flexible beam
PZT actuator
PZT sensor
AC motor
Accelerometer
Ballscrew
drive system
Slider
w (x, t)
Coupling
X
Y
s (t)
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the exible Cartesian smart materials robot.
Z.C. Qiu / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 30 (2012) 248266 250
the PZT patches, respectively; h
b
and h
pe
are the thicknesses of the beam and the PZT patches, respectively; b
b
and b
pe
are
the widths of the beam and the PZT patches, respectively; the primes indicate the partial derivatives with respect to the
displacement variable x.
The mechanical kinetic energy of the system can be written as
E
k
=
1
2
(I
r
I
c
I
bs
)
_
y
2
r

1
2
M
b
_
s(t)
2

1
2
r
b
A
b
Z
L
0
[
_
s(t)
_
w(x,t)]
2
dx

1
2
r
pe
A
pe
X
n
i = 1
Z
x
i2
x
i1
[
_
s(t)
_
w(x,t)]
2
dx
1
2
M
t
[
_
s(t)
_
w(l,t)]
2
, (3)
where E
k
is the kinetic energy; I
r
is the inertia of the servomotor rotor; I
c
is the inertia of the coupling; I
bs
is the inertia of
the thread rod; y
r
is the angular displacement of the servomotors rotor; M
b
is the mass of the translating slider; s(t) is the
displacement of the translational slider, and s(t)=(y
r
(t))/(200p) due to the lead of the ballscrew is 10 mm; r
b
and A
b
=b
b
h
b
are the mass density and the cross-sectional area of the beam, respectively; r
pe
and A
pe
=b
pe
h
pe
are the mass density and
the cross-sectional area of each PZT patch, respectively; L is the total length of the exible beam; l is the distance between
the acceleration sensor and the clamped side of the beam; (x
i1
, x
i2
) denotes the left and the right coordinates of the ith
piezoelectric patch; n is the number of PZT patches; M
t
is the mass of the acceleration sensor; the overdot indicates the
partial derivatives with respect to the time variable t.
The non-conservative work done by the AC servomotor torque and piezoelectric actuator can be written as
W=(t(t)t
f
(t))y
r

X
n
i = 1
cV
i
(t)(U
/
(x
i2
)U
/
(x
i1
))qF
1
_
q, (4)
where t(t) is the control input torque of the AC servomotor; t
f
(t) is the equivalent friction torque of the drive system in the
servomotor side; V
i
(t) is the control voltage applied to the ith PZT actuator in the direction of polarization; F
1
=[f
1
,. . .,f
m
] is
the vector accounting for the internal viscous friction in the exible beam structure; where f
i
is the internal viscous friction
coefcient of the ith mode, f
i
40, i =1,. . .,m; c is a constant related to the piezoelectric structures.
Friction in mechanical system is a nonlinear phenomenon; friction force can degrade the performance of a motion
control system. The equivalent friction torque of the drive system in the AC servomotor side can be expressed as
t
f
(t) =t
f r
(t) t
f l
(t)
F
f s
(t)
200p
, (5)
where t
fr
(t) is the friction torque of the servomotors rotor; t

(t) is the thread rod friction torque including the friction

torque of screw pair and that of the both sides supporting bearings; F
fs
(t) is the friction force between the slider and the
roller guider.
In this research, the friction force t
f
(t) is mainly viscous damping. It can be approximately calculated as t
f
(t) =d
y
U
_
y
r
where d
y
is the equivalent damping coefcient in the servomotor side.
By substituting the expressions of the kinetic energy of Eqs. (2)(5) into Lagranges equations, the dynamics equation of
the single exible moving manipulator can be derived as
M

xC
_
xKx =U, (6)
where x, M, C, K and U are the state vector, mass matrix, centrifugal stiffening and damping matrix, stiffness matrix,
control input vector, respectively, and they can be expressed as
x =[y
r
q
T
]
T
, U= t(t)
X
n
i = 1
cV
i
(t)(U
/
(x
i2
)U
/
(x
i1
))
" #
T
,
M(q) =
m
yy
m
yq
m
T
yq
m
qq
" #
, C =
d
y
0
0 d
q
" #
, K=
0 0
0 K
q
" #
,
where M,C c R
(m1)(m1)
; x c R
(m1)1
; K c R
(m1)(m1)
; d
q
is the modal damping coefcient vector of the exible
manipulator, d
q
=diag[d
q
1
. . .d
q
i
. . .d
q
m
]. The variables and vectors can be written as
m
yy
=(I
r
I
c
I
bs
)
M
b
r
b
A
b
Lnr
pe
A
pe
L
pe
M
t
(200p)
2
, (m
yy
c R
11
):
m
yq
=
r
b
A
b
200p
Z
L
0
U(x)dx
r
pe
A
pe
200p
X
n
i = 1
Z
x
i2
x
i1
U(x)dx
M
t
U(l)
200p
, (m
yq
c R
1m
):
Z.C. Qiu / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 30 (2012) 248266 251
The (r,s)th elements of the mass and stiffness matrices are
m
qq
(r,s) =
Z
L
0
r
b
A
b
U
k = r
(x)U
k = s
(x)dx
X
n
i = 1
Z
x
i2
x
i1
r
pe
A
pe
U
k = r
(x)U
k = s
(x)dxM
t
U
T
(l)U(l)9
(r,s)
, m
qq
c R
mm
,
K
q
(r,s) =
Z
L
0
E
b
I
b
U
//
k = r
(x)U
//
k = s
(x)dx
X
n
i = 1
Z
x
i2
x
i1
E
pe
I
pe
U
//
k = r
(x)U
//
k = s
(x)dx, (K
q
c R
mm
):
When the exible manipulator is deformed, the charge Q(t) generated by the PZT sensor is [21]
Q(t) =e
31
b
s
r
Z
x
2
x
1
@
2
w(x,t)
@x
2
dx, (7)
where e
31
is the piezoelectric stress constant for the ith PZT sensor, corresponding to its piezoelectric strain constant
d
31
=16610
12
m/V, e
31
o0; b
s
is the width, x
1
and x
2
are the location of the left and right edges of the ith piezoelectric
sensor; r is the distance from the middle of the PZT patch to the middle of the beam.
The PZT sensors signal can be amplied by a charge amplier, and the output voltage is
V
s
(t) =k
ca
Q(t) =k
ca
e
31
b
s
r[U
/
(x
2
)U
/
(x
1
)]q, (8)
where k
ca
is the gain of the charge amplier.
3. Control algorithms
3.1. PD and PPF controller
The PD control algorithm is given as follows
u
pd
=K
p
V
s
K
v
_
V
s
, (9)
where K
p
40 and K
v
40 are the proportional and differential gain of PD control law by the AC servomotor actuator,
respectively.
The control laws of the system include AC servomotors position control and active vibration control of the exible
manipulator. The control objective is that the slider achieves its desired position while unwanted vibration of the exible
manipulator is suppressed. Therefore, the controller for the AC servomotor comprises of two components, one is for the
rigid motion, and the other is for the exible motion. The designed controller for simultaneous positioning and vibration
control is a kind of composite controller. The realization of the servomotor torque PD controller can be expressed as
t =K
p1
(y
d
y
r
)K
v1
(
_
y
d

_
y
r
)K
p
V
s
K
v
_
V
s
, (10)
where y
d
and
_
y
d
are the desired angle position and the angle velocity of the servomotors rotor, and their units are rad and
rad/s, respectively; K
p1
and K
v1
are the proportional and differential gains of PD control law for the servomotor rotor.
PPF control requires that the sensor is collocated or nearly collocated with the actuator. In PPF control, structural
position information is fed to a compensator. The output of the compensator, magnied by a gain, is fed directly back to
the structure. The equations describing PPF operation are given as [2224]
Structure :

x2zo
_
xo
2
x =u
pe
, u
pe
=ko
2
Z, (11a)
Compensator : Z2z
c
o
c
_ Zo
2
c
Z =o
2
c
x, (11b)
where x, z and o are the modal coordinate describing displacement, damping ratio and natural frequency of the exible
structure, respectively; Z, z
c
and o
c
are the compensator coordinate, damping ratio and frequency of the compensator,
respectively; u
pe
is the control input to the system by PZT actuator; k is a feedback gain, for the closed loop system being
stable, the control gain should satisfy 0oko1.
The realization of PPF controller by AC servomotor torque drive can be expressed as
t =K
p1
(y
d
y)K
v1
(
_
y
d

_
y)k
1
o
2
Z, (12)
where k
1
is a feedback gain using AC servomotor, and it should satisfy 0ok
1
o1.
3.2. Characteristic model based nonlinear golden section adaptive control algorithm
In addition to the above mentioned two controllers, a kind of characteristic model based nonlinear golden section
adaptive control is implemented. It is seemed necessary to represent the concept and denition of CM here. The author
cited the description from Ref. [1518] with a little modication on nonlinear golden section control law and nonlinear
logic integral damping control law. The so-called CM is modeling based on plant dynamics characteristics and control
performance requirements, rather than only based on accurate plant dynamic analysis. The CM has the following features:
(a) in a dynamic process, for the same input, the output of the CM is approximately equal to that of the practical plant, i.e.,
Z.C. Qiu / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 30 (2012) 248266 252
in the dynamic process the output error can remain within a permitted error limit. In a steady state, the outputs of both
the CM and the practical system are equal. (b) The structure of a CM should be simpler, easier and more convenient to
implement from the engineering point than the original dynamics equation. Besides plant characteristics, the structure
and order of CM mainly rely on control performance requirements. (c) The CM is signicantly different from the traditional
truncation model of a high order system. It compresses all the information of the high dynamics order model into several
characteristic parameters, and no information is lost. In general, CM is represented with a slowly time-varying difference
equation. Therefore, the aforementioned problems of truncated model based control methods are avoided.
If the controlled plant is a minimum-phase system, or a weak non-minimum-phase system, its CM can be given by a
second order slowly time-varying difference equation as follows:
y(k) =f
1
(k)y(k1)f
2
(k)y(k2)g
0
(k)u(k1) =u
T
(k1)h(k), (13)
where the regression vector and the parameter vector of the system are written as
u(k1) =[
y(k1) y(k2) u(k1)
]
T
, h(k) =[
f
1
(k) f
2
(k) g
0
(k)
]
T
:
The coefcients f
i
(k) (the subscript is i =1, 2) and g
0
(k) in Eq. (13) are slowly time-varying. It is obvious that the range of
the coefcients f
i
(k) can be determined beforehand when no integral item and no multiple-root exist. Consider their
maximum range, we can choose f
1
(k)A(1,2), f
2
(k)A[1,0]; g
0
(k) meets the condition of g
0
(k)51. For stable plants, it is
proved that parameters f
1
(k), f
2
(k) and g
0
(k) belong to the bounded convex set [16]:
D
s
= (f
1
(k),f
2
(k),g
0
(k))
1:4331rf
1
(k)r1:9974o2
1o0:9999rf
2
(k)o0:5134
0:9196of
1
(k) f
2
(k)r0:9999o1:0
0og
min
rg
0
(k)rg
max
oo

9
>
>
>
>
=
>
>
>
>
;
:
8
>
>
>
>
<
>
>
>
>
:
(14)
When the static gain of the practical dynamic system is 1, the following can be obtained
f
1
(o)f
2
(o)g
0
(o)61: (15)
Eq. (13) can also be expressed as an estimated parameters vector as
y(k) =
^
f
1
(k)y(k1)
^
f
2
(k)y(k2)^ g
0
(k)u(k1) =u
T
(k1)
^
h(k), (16)
where
^
h(k) =
^
f
1
(k)
^
f
2
(k)
^
g
0
(k)
h i
T
;
^
f
i
(k) and
^
g
0
(k) are dened as the estimated values of the parameters f
i
(k) and g
0
(k),
respectively.
A parameter identication of the projection algorithm composes the characteristic parameter estimator [25]:
^
h
n
(k) =
^
h(k1)
gu(k1)
au
T
(k1)u(k1)
(y(k)u
T
(k1)
^
h(k1)), (17a)
^
h(k) =p[
^
h
n
(k)], (17b)
where a40 and 0ogo2; p[x] denotes the orthogonal projection from x to D
s
. Thus, (
^
f
1
(k),
^
f
2
(k)) c D
s
.
The CMNGSAC method includes Maintaining/tracking control law, nonlinear golden section control law, logic integral
and logic differential control law.
(1) Maintaining/tracking control law
u
0
(k) =
1
^
g
0
(k)l
1
[y
r
(k)
^
f
1
(k)y(k)
^
f
2
(k)y(k1)], (18)
where y(k) is the output, y
r
(k) is the desired output, l
1
is a small positive constant.
The desired output of vibration suppression is y
r
(k)=0, then, Eq. (18) can be written as an adaptive gain regulating
proportional and derivative (PD) controller form:
u
0
(k) =K
p4
(k)Uy(k) K
d4
(k)U[y(k)y(k1)], (18a)
where K
p4
(k) =
^
f
1
(k)
^
f
2
(k)
^ g
0
(k) l
1
, K
d4
(k) =
^
f
2
(k)
^ g
0
(k) l
1
.
(2) Nonlinear golden-section adaptive control law.
A kind of nonlinear golden-section adaptive control law is [16,17]
u
l
(k) =
L
1
^
f
1
(k) L
2
^
f
2
(k)
Z
1
9Z
3
Uy(k)9
m
Z
2
L
2
^
f
2
(k)
h i
y(k)L
2
^
f
2
(k)y(k1)
( ^ g
0
(k)l
1
)
, (19)
where Z
1
, Z
2
, Z
3
and m are positive constants selected for nonlinear switch; ~ y(k) =y(k)y
r
(k), L
1
=(3

5
_
)=2 -0:382,
L
2
=(

5
_
1)=2 -0:618; when the system is stable, L
1
=1 and L
2
=1.
According to Eq. (19), Eq. (20) can be also re-written as an adaptive gain regulating PD controller form:
u
l
(k) =K
p2
(k,y(k))y(k)K
d2
[y(k)y(k1)], (20)
Z.C. Qiu / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 30 (2012) 248266 253
where the control coefcients can be written as
K
p2
(k,y(k)) =
k
p
(k)
Z
1
9Z
3
Uy(k)9
m
Z
2
, k
p
(k) =
L
1
^
f
1
(k)L
2
^
f
2
(k)
^ g
0
(k)l
1
, K
d2
(k) =
L
2
^
f
2
(k)
^ g
0
(k)l
1
:
Remarks: different from the nonlinear golden-section control law presented in Ref. [16,17], another parameter Z
3
was
introduced. The advantage is that the nonlinear switching amplitude can be specied by the parameter Z
3
according to
the practical control output. The detailed explanation and parameters selection of the nonlinear switching law are as
following cases:
Case 1. When one selects the parameters as Z
1
=0.0 and Z
2
=1.0, then there is Z
1
9Z
3
Uy(k)9
m
Z
2
=1, and
K
p2
(k,y(k))=k
p
(k). No switching gain is applied to the controller.
Case 2. In the practical application of the algorithm, the parameters Z
1
, Z
2
and m can be selected in the following
ranges: Z
1
,Z
2
A(0,1), m41. For example, Z
1
=Z
2
=0.5, and m=2. The selection of the parameter Z
3
can be larger or less
than 1.0, according to the amplitude of the practical systems output. Because the inequality is m41, if the constant
parameter Z
3
is given and 9Z
3
Uy(k)941, then Z
1
9Z
3
Uy(k)9
m
Z
2
41 and K
p2
(k,y(k))ok
p
(k). If 9Z
3
Uy(k)9 =1, then
Z
1
9Z
3
Uy(k)9
m
Z
2
=1 and K
p2
(k,y(k))=k
p
(k). If 9Z
3
Uy(k)9o1, then Z
1
9Z
3
Uy(k)9
m
Z
2
o1 and K
p2
(k,y(k)) 4k
p
(k). Therefore,
the control gain can be regulated according to the amplitude of the output signal. In this work for vibration control, the
control gain is reduced for the larger amplitude vibration while increased for the lower amplitude vibration. The
advantages of this case are as follows: (a) for the larger amplitude vibration, the control gain can be reduced to avoid
much larger control effect. Thus, the problems of stability and control spillover will not be caused due to very high
control gain. (b) For the lower amplitude vibration, the control gain is increased due to the switching control law. This
can guarantee that the lower amplitude vibration can be damped out quickly.
Case 3. The case of parameters selection as other values is not considered in this paper.
(3) Nonlinear logic damping control law.
In order to suppress the lower amplitude vibration quickly, a kind of nonlinear logic damping controller is needed
before the nal output. It is given as
u
d
(k) =c
2
y(k)U

X
N
i = 0
(9y(ki)99 _ y(ki)9)
Z
1
9Z
3
Uy(k)9
m
Z
2
v
u
u
t
, (21)
where c
2
is a constant, N is the number of sampling periods considered for logic derivative control, here N=1/
(4DT o
1
), and DT is the sampling time of the control system.
Similarly, Eq. (21) can be also re-written as an adaptive gain regulating proportional controller form:
u
d
(k) =K
p3
(k)Uy(k), (21a)
where K
p3
(k) =c
2

P
N
i = 0
9y(ki)9 9 _ y(ki)9 ( )
Z
1
9Z
3
Uy(k)9
m
Z
2
r
can be seen as a tuning proportional gain.
The effect of the nonlinear switching law Z
1
9Z
3
Uy(k)9
m
Z
2
is the same as mentioned above.
The total CMNGSAC law can be expressed as
u
CM
(k) =u
0
(k)u
l
(k) u
d
(k): (22)
The detailed proof of the above-mentioned controllers can be referred in previous researches [1618].
The realization of the CMNGSAC method by AC servomotor actuator can be expressed as
t =K
p1
(y
d
y
r
)K
v1
(
_
y
d

_
y
r
)u
CM
: (23)
When the CMNGSAC method is applied to the system, the outputs are from the measured signal by PZT sensor and the
input is from the control signal u
CM
.
Remark: by now, three control laws are introduced for the AC servomotor, given by Eqs. (10), (12) and (23). All the
control laws comprise of two components, one is for the rigid motion, and the other is for the exible motion. The rigid
motion component can control the slider to achieve the desired position. Simultaneously, the exible motion component is
used to suppress the vibration of the exible beam using the AC servomotor as the actuator.
In this work, the proportional and derivative gains K
p1
and K
v1
for the rigid motion are uniform for three controllers.
However, the control laws for the exible motion are different. They are PD controller, PPF controller and CMNGSC
algorithm, expressed by Eqs. (10), (12) and (23), respectively. The differences of the three controllers are the control effects
for vibration suppression of the exible beam. Their differences are addressed in detail as follows:
PD controller is a constant gain linear controller. To obtain better control effect, the larger proportional and derivative
gains will be selected. Thus, the stability will be affected, especially for controlling the larger amplitude vibration; also, the
problem of control spillover will be caused. If the selected PD control gains are not much larger, the stability and control
Z.C. Qiu / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 30 (2012) 248266 254
spillover will not be affected. However, the lower amplitude vibration is difcult to be damped out quickly. In total, the
constant PD controller is difcult to achieve a good tradeoff between the larger and the lower amplitude vibration.
PPF control is also considered as a second order low-pass lter; therefore, it rolls off quickly at high frequencies. As
compared with PD controller, PPF controller is insensitive to spillover. This algorithm is suitable to control the lower
modes of a structure with well-separated modes. However, the natural frequency required in the design of PPF controller
should be known exactly, or the performance will be adversely affected.
The CMNGSC algorithm is a kind of adaptive nonlinear controller. Its gains can be regulated according to the vibration
amplitude. This controller can not only keep the control effect not so high for the larger amplitude vibration, but also keep
the considerable control effect for the lower amplitude vibration to overcome the systems nonlinearity problems, such as
dead zone nonlinearity. Therefore, the lower amplitude residual vibration can be suppressed quickly due to much larger
control effect, as compared with PD controller. Accordingly, both the larger and the lower amplitude vibrations are
effectively suppressed by the CMNGSC algorithm.
3.3. Stability analysis of the CMNGSAC algorithm
In this section, stability of the CMMGSAC algorithm is analyzed for the translational manipulator driven by motor, using
Lyapunovs direct method La Salles invariance principle.
From Eqs. (18a), (20) and (21a), one can know that the combined form Eq. (22) is a kind of gain adaptive regulating PD
control algorithm. For vibration of the exible manipulator, the measured output is the voltage signal of the PZT patchs
sensor. Therefore, the CMNGSAC algorithm can be expressed in the following gain regulating PD controller form:
u
CM
=
~
K
pN
V
s

~
K
vN
_
V
s
, (24)
where the gains
~
K
pN
and
~
K
vN
can be regulated with control time according to a nonlinear adaptive law of the CMNGSAC
method. The values of the control gains are bounded as following:
0oK
pmin
o
~
K
pN
oK
pmax
oo, (25a)
0oK
vmin
o
~
K
vN
oK
vmax
oo, (25b)
where K
pmin
and K
pmax
, K
vmin
and K
vmax
are the strict positive minimum and maximum possible values of the proportional
and the derivative gains, respectively.
Eq. (24) indicates that the CMNGSAC method is a kind of gain regulating PD controller. The regulating law is nonlinear
and adaptive. Then, Eq. (23) can be written as
t =K
p1
(y
d
y
r
)K
v1
(
_
y
d

_
y
r
)
~
K
pN
V
s

~
K
vN
_
V
s
: (26)
From a practical point of view, the low frequency modes usually play a very important role in the exible beam structure.
Without loss of generality, only the rst two bending modes are considered in this research. Then, Eq. (8) can be written as
V
s
(t) =k
g1
q
1
k
g2
q
2
, (27)
where k
g1
=k
ca
e
31
b
s
r[f
/
1
(x
2
)f
/
1
(x
1
)] 40 and k
g2
=k
ca
e
31
b
s
r[f
/
2
(x
2
)f
/
2
(x
1
)] 40 for the PZT sensors signal used here.
The dynamic equation considered the rst two bending modes of vibration driven by motor is
m
yy

y
r
m
yq
1

q
1
m
yq
2

q
2
d
y
_
y
r
=t, (28)
where the mass parameters are m
yq
1
=
r
b
A
b
200p
R
L
0
f
1
(x)dx
r
pe
Ape
200p
P
n
i = 1
R
x
i2
x
i1
f
1
(x)dx
Mt f
1
(l)
200p
, and m
yq
2
=
r
b
A
b
200p
R
L
0
f
2
(x)dx
r
pe
Ape
200p
P
n
i = 1
R
x
i2
x
i1
f
2
(x)dx
Mt f
2
(l)
200p
. The mass of accelerometer M
t
is relatively small, thus, there is m
yq
1
40 and m
yq
2
40.
In general, there is
_
y
d
=0. Let
~
y =(y
d
y
r
). The unique equilibrium point of the closed loop system is
[
~
y
_
y
r
V
s
_
V
s
]
T
=0, i.e., y
r
=y
d
,
_
y
r
=0, V
s
=0,
_
V
s
=0.
To study the systems stability of equilibrium point driven by the AC motor, Lyapunovs direct method is employed. The
Lyapunov function candidate may be written as
V =
1
2
m
yy
_
y
2
r

1
2
m
yq
1
_
q
2
1

1
2
m
yq
2
_
q
2
2

1
2
K
p1
~
y
2

1
2
~
K
pN
(k
g1
q
2
1
k
g2
q
2
2
): (29)
Eq. (29) shows that V is a non-negative function. Its total derivative with respect to time is expressed as
_
V =
_
y
r
m
yy

y
r

_
q
1
m
yq
1

q
1

_
q
2
m
yq
2

q
2

~
yK
p1
_
y
r

~
K
pN
(q
1
k
g1
_
q
1
q
2
k
g2
_
q
2
): (30)
Substituting Eqs. (26)(28) into Eq. (30), one gets
_
V =(K
v1
d
y
)
_
y
2
r

~
K
vN
k
g1
_
q
2
1

~
K
vN
k
g2
_
q
2
2
(
_
q
1

_
y
r
)(m
yq
1

q
1

~
K
vN
k
g1
_
q
1

~
K
pN
k
g1
q
1
)
(
_
q
2

_
y
r
)(m
yq
2

q
2

~
K
vN
k
g2
_
q
2

~
K
pN
k
g2
q
2
): (31)
Then, there is
_
V r(K
v1
d
y
)
_
y
2
r

~
K
vN
k
g1
_
q
2
1

~
K
vN
k
g2
_
q
2
2
9(
_
q
1

_
y
r
)(m
yq
1

q
1

~
K
vN
k
g1
_
q
1

~
K
pN
k
g1
q
1
)9
9(
_
q
2

_
y
r
)(m
yq
2

q
2

~
K
vN
k
g2
_
q
2

~
K
pN
k
g2
q
2
)9: (32)
Z.C. Qiu / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 30 (2012) 248266 255
Since all parameters and variables in the expressions 9(
_
q
1

_
y
r
)(m
yq
1

q
1

~
K
vN
k
g1
_
q
1

~
K
pN
k
g1
q
1
)9 and 9(
_
q
2

_
y
r
)(m
yq
2

q
2

~
K
vN
k
g2
_
q
2

~
K
pN
k
g2
q
2
)9 are bounded, 9(
_
q
1

_
y
r
)(m
yq
1

q
1

~
K
vN
k
g1
_
q
1

~
K
pN
k
g1
q
1
)9 and 9(
_
q
2

_
y
r
)(m
yq
2

q
2

~
K
vN
k
g2
_
q
2

~
K
pN
k
g2
q
2
)9
are also bounded. Therefore, the condition
_
V r0 can be held under the condition that the control gain K
v1
is chosen
sufciently large.
Remarks: all the coefcients of the functions V and
_
V are positive. And stability analyses are explained in the following
cases:
Case (1). Only the viscous friction is considered in this paper. If
_
y
r
0, then

y
r
0, there must be t0. If and only if t0,
_
y
r
0 can be held because no driving torque can cause the rotor rotating. Considering the orthogonality of modes, from
Eqs. (26) and (27) one can infer that the following equations are satised: y
r
=y
d
,
_
y
r
=0, q
1
=q
2
=0,
_
q
1
=
_
q
2
=0. That is to
say, the equilibrium point is achieved.
Case (2). The initial values of the variables
_
q
1
,

q
1
,
_
q
2
and

q
2
are bounded as the initial excitation is limited, and the scopes
of motion variables are also limited. When
_
y
r
a0, if K
v1
is chosen sufciently large, the condition
_
V o0 can be held at the
beginning of the control. Then, V is non-increasing, and the values of the variables
_
q
1
,

q
1
,
_
q
2
and

q
2
will be convergent and
bounded in the whole control process. Therefore, the stability of the closed loop system can be achieved if the gain K
v1
is
chosen sufciently large.
Case (3). To analyze the global asymptotic stability of the equilibrium, one may explore the use of La Salles invariance
principle. La Salles Theorem may be used in a straightforward way to analyze the global asymptotic stability of the origin
[28]. Then, every solution originating in the denite eld tends to the set
_
V =0 as time tends to innity. When
_
V 0, from
Eqs. (29) and (30) one can deduce the following: y
r
=y
d
,

y
r
=0, q
1
=q
2
=0 and
_
q
1
=
_
q
2
=0, according to the orthogonality of
modes. Therefore, the equilibrium point of the closed loop system is asymptotically stable.
From a theoretical point of view, asymptotic stability of the nonlinear adaptive control algorithm is analyzed. One may
achieve the stable condition if the control gains are chosen reasonably. In the next section, experiments will be conducted
to verify the implemented control algorithms.
4. The test-Beds of the exible manipulator and experimental results
4.1. Introduction of experimental setup
In order to verify the implemented control algorithm and analyze the dynamic characteristics of the exible Cartesian
manipulator driven by a ballscrew drive system with an AC servomotor. An experimental setup was constructed for
conducting experiments. The photograph of the experimental setup is shown in Fig. 2.
In the test-beds, an AC servomotor with a built-in incremental encoder is mounted at the entrance of the ballscrew
drive system, connected by a coupling. The ballscrew was made in THK Corporation. Its lead is 10 mm and its stroke is
600 mm. The AC servomotor was made in MITSUBISHI Corporation. The rated power of the servomotor is 400 W. The built-
in incremental encoder is used to measure the rotation angle and angular velocity of the servomotors rotor. The resolution
of the encoder is specied as 40,000 pulses per revolution or 0.0091 per pulse through a third-axis quadrature encoder
counter board, PCL-833, which is used to count the encoders pulses.
The material of the exible beam is berglass colophony. The dimensions of the exible beam are the length L=0.68 m,
the width b=0.15 m and the thickness h=0.002 m. The mass of the acceleration sensor is 50 g, and the mounted position
is l =0.655 m. One PZT patch is bonded onto the top surface of the host beam and located nearly close to the clamped side
Fig. 2. Photograph of the exible Cartesian manipulator experimental setup.
Z.C. Qiu / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 30 (2012) 248266 256
of the beam about X-axis, which is used as a PZT sensor. Another four PZT patches are bonded onto the top and the bottom
surfaces of the host beam structure symmetrically close to the clamped end. Their electric circuits are connected in
parallel, used as a one-channel actuator.
The control system is realized using an industrial personal computer (IPC), the Pentium IV, CPU 2.4 GHz. Considering
the hardware conditions and the control algorithms applied for the system, the sampling period was selected as 2 ms.
A charge amplier, YE5850, amplies the PZT sensors signal to the voltage range of 10 V to 10 V, and converted into
digital data through a PCL-818HD A/D data acquisition card. After scaling, the transverse bending displacement at the tip
point of the link is about 8 mm corresponding to 10 V of the PZT sensors signal. The outputs of the controller are sent to
ampliers of the AC servomotor and PZT actuator, through a PCL-727 D/A control card. The PZT actuator is driven by a high
voltage amplier (APEX PA240CX), which amplies the low voltage signal in the range 5 V to 5 V to a high voltage
signal in the range 260 V to 260 V. A signal generator is used to generate the sine signal for experiments on resonant
response case.
For active vibration control experiments, the PZT sensor is used to measure the vibration of the exible manipulator.
Furthermore, the input is the torque of the AC servomotor. Because the system is minimum phase, thus, the proposed
control methods can be applied to the system.
4.2. Experimental identication on modal frequencies of the exible manipulator
If the slider is completely stopped by the servomotors control action, the exible manipulator can be approximately
treated just as a cantilever beam with centralized mass (payload). In order to identify the modal frequencies of the exible
beam, excitation analyses are carried out for actual beam. The cases of excitation include the external and internal exciting.
The external exciting is generated by an impulse force hammer knocking at some certain point of the beam, to generate the
vibration of the rst and the rst two bending modes, respectively. The internal exciting is generated using the PZT
actuator or AC servomotor actuator. The PZT sensor is used to measure the vibration. The frequency response curves can be
obtained by employing the fast Fourier transform (FFT) method.
After exciting the vibration of the rst bending mode, the measured time-domain response without control is depicted
in Fig. 3(a), and the frequency response shown in Fig. 3(b) is obtained by employing FFT. The curve tting of the frequency
response curve is also shown in Fig. 3(b). The frequency response function of the curve tting is expressed as
G(s) =
0:635 (s4:5)
(s
2
0:186s157:914)
=
0:635 (s4:5)
(s0:09312:566i)(s0:09312:566i)
: (33)
After excitation, the measured time-domain response of the rst two bending modes without control is depicted in
Fig. 4(a). The frequency response can be obtained by employing FFT. The frequency response curve and its curve tting are
shown in Fig. 4(b). The curve ttings frequency response function is
G(s) =
0:33 (s3:3)(s
2
12:0s2800:0)(s190:0)
(s
2
0:162s157:914)(s
2
0:87s6986:1)(s55:0)
=
0:33 (s3:3)(s6:052:574i)(s6:052:574i)(s190:0)
(s0:08112:566i)(s0:08112:566i)(s0:43583:582i)(s0:43583:582i)(s55:0)
(34)
From Eq. (33), one can know that the gain of the system is k
1
=0.635; the zero is z
1
=4.5, the poles are
p
1,2
=0.093712.566i. Then one can know that the damping ratio and modal frequency of the rst bending mode are
z
1
=0.0074 and o
1
=2.0 Hz, respectively.
0 5 10 15 20
-10
-5
0
5
10
Time (s)
V
o
l
t
a
g
e

(
V
)
10
0
10
1
-60
-50
-40
-30
-20
-10
0
10
20
Frequency (Hz)
M
a
g
n
i
t
u
d
e

(
d
B
)
Fig. 3. Uncontrolled responses of the rst bending mode: (a) time-domain response; (b) frequency response.
Z.C. Qiu / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 30 (2012) 248266 257
From Eq. (34), one can know that the zeros are z
1
=3.3, z
2,3
=6.0752.574i, z
4
=190.0; the poles are
p
1,2
=0.081712.566i, p
3,4
=0.435783.582i and p
5
=55.0; the gain of the system is k
1
=0.33; the damping ratio
and modal frequency of the rst bending mode are z
1
=0.0064 and o
1
=2.0 Hz; those of the second bending mode are
z
2
=0.0052 and o
2
=13.30 Hz, respectively.
Remark: on comparing Eq. (33) with Eq. (34), it can be seen that the identied modal frequency of the rst bending
mode is equal. However, the identied damping ratio of Eq. (33) is a little larger than that of Eq. (34). This is because that
the identied damping ratio comprises two components: one is the structural damping, and the other is air damping in the
environment. The excited vibration peak amplitude of the rst bending mode in Fig. 3(a) is larger than that in Fig. 4(a).
Generally, the air damping is bigger for the larger amplitude vibration. In addition, the structural damping is almost
uniform for the two excited cases. Therefore, the identied damping ratio is a little larger when only the vibration of the
rst bending mode is excited. It is obvious that the damping ratios are comparatively small for free vibration response.
Thus, active vibration control action must be applied to suppress the vibration effectively.
The map of the distributed poles and zeros in Eq. (34) for the rst two modes is shown in Fig. 5. In Fig. 5, * denotes pole
and o denotes zero. From Fig. 5, it can be seen that there are also one stable real pole and two stable conjugate zeros and
two stable real zeros in the curve tting model. However, the stable real pole and all the zeros are far from the imaginary
axis. Their distances away from the imaginary axis are over ve times greater than those of the poles concerning the rst
two bending modes. So they will not affect the characteristics of the system signicantly. They have inuence almost
solely on the weighted gain along with frequency change. Thus, the poles of the rst two bending modes dominate the
system. From Fig. 5, one can know that the poles of the rst two modes locate in the left half complex plane, thus the open-
loop system is stable. However, the damping of exible beam structure is rather small. From the measured results it can be
known that the decay time of the beam vibrations without active control effect is over 50 s.
In addition to the external excitation analyses, internal excitation analyses were also used. This is done using a chirp
(swept-sine) signal to excite the vibration of the exible beam. Their responses were measured by the PZT sensor. The
swept-sine signal was generated by a signal generator SPF05, which ranges from 0.530 Hz, and the exciting time and
0 2 4 6 8 10
-10
-5
0
5
10
Time (s)
V
o
l
t
a
g
e

(
V
)
10
0
10
1
-60
-50
-40
-30
-20
-10
0
10
20
Frequency (Hz)
F
F
T

a
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e

(
d
B
)
Fig. 4. Uncontrolled responses of the rst two bending modes: (a) time-domain response; (b) frequency response.
-200 -150 -100 -50 0 50
-100
-50
0
50
100
Real axis
I
m
a
g
i
n
a
r
y

a
x
i
s
-8 -6 -4 -2 0 2
-100
-50
0
50
100
Real axis
I
m
a
g
i
n
a
r
y

a
x
i
s
Fig. 5. Map of the distributed poles and zeros the rst two bending modes: (a) all the poles and zeros; (b) zoom in the real axis.
Z.C. Qiu / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 30 (2012) 248266 258
amplitude were specied as 50 s and 2 V, respectively. The rst case was excited using the PZT actuator. The generated
swept-sine signal was amplied by a high voltage amplier APEX PA240CX and then applied to the bonded PZT actuator.
Thus, the swept frequency response is obtained. Fig. 6(a) shows the excited chirp signal and the time-domain response of
the bending vibration measured by the PZT sensor. One can obtain the frequency response curve from excitation to output
as shown in Fig. 6(b) by employing FFT. From Fig. 6(b), one can obtain that the modal frequencies are o
1
=2.0 Hz and
o
2
=13.30 Hz.
The second case was excited using the AC servomotor actuator. In this case, the slider of the ballscrew was controlled at
some certain point. The swept-sine signal was applied to the servomotor according to the following control law:
t =K
p1
(y
d
y) K
v1
(
_
y
d

_
y)K
ex
UV
ex
, (35)
where K
ex
is the selected control gain for exciting analysis using the AC servomotor; V
ex
is the voltage of the exciting signal.
Fig. 7(a) shows the excited chirp signal and the time-domain response excited by AC servomotor using the controller of
Eq. (35). Its frequency response was shown in Fig. 7(b) by employing FFT. From the internal excitation analyses results
illustrated in Figs. 5 and 6, it can be seen that the natural frequencies are the same as those by the external excitation.
Comparing Fig. 7(b) with Fig. 6(b), one can know that the ballscrew mechanism will cause noises. From Fig. 7(b), one can
0 10 20 30 40 50
-3
-2
-1
0
1
2
3
Time (s)
V
o
l
t
a
g
e

(
V
)
0 10 20 30 40 50
-10
-5
0
5
10
Time (s)
V
o
l
t
a
g
e

(
V
)
10
0
10
1
-40
-30
-20
-10
0
10
20
30
40
Frequency (Hz)
F
R
F

M
a
g
n
i
t
u
d
e

(
d
B
)
Fig. 6. Measured swept sine vibration response excited by PZT actuator: (a) time-domain response; (b) frequency response.
0 10 20 30 40 50
-3
-2
-1
0
1
2
3
Time (s)
V
o
l
t
a
g
e

(
V
)
0 10 20 30 40 50
-10
-5
0
5
10
Time (s)
V
o
l
t
a
g
e

(
V
)
10
0
10
1
-40
-30
-20
-10
0
10
20
30
40
Frequency (Hz)
F
R
F

M
a
g
n
i
t
u
d
e

(
d
B
)
Fig. 7. Measured swept sine vibration response excited by AC servomotor actuator: (a) time-domain response; (b) frequency response.
Z.C. Qiu / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 30 (2012) 248266 259
obtain that the modal frequencies are o
1
=2.0 Hz and o
2
=13.32 Hz. The modal frequencies of Fig. 7(b) and Fig. 6(b) are
approximately equal. Thus, the boundary condition of the moving beam driven by ballscrew system is close to that of the
cantilever beam.
4.3. Experiments on set-point active vibration control driven by AC servomotor
For set-point vibration control, the PZT sensor is used to measure the elastic vibration. The AC servomotor is used as the
actuator. Its driving torque is employed at the entrance of the ballscrew system. The desired angle position of the motor
rotor was set as y
d
=const, i.e., the desired position of the slider was at some set-point position, and the desired angle
velocity was set as
_
y
d
=0. In Sections 4.34.5, the velocity control mode of the AC motor is employed. The relevant control
parameters (gains) are specied as K
p1
=2.29, K
v1
=0.048, K
p
=0.057 and K
v
=0.0019 for the motor side position control. For
PPF control, the control gain is k=0.0067 and o
1
=12.57 rad/s. For the CMNGSC algorithm, Z
1
=Z
2
=0.5, Z
3
=0.45, m=2 and
a=0.97. The initial values of tuning parameters are given as
^
f
1
=1:84,
^
f
2
=0:85 and ^ g
0
=0:01.
The controlled time-domain responses under PD and PPF control laws using Eqs. (10) and (12) for the rst and the rst
two bending modes are depicted alternately in Fig. 8(a) and (b), Fig. 9(a) and (b), respectively. From the experimental
results, it can be seen that the vibration of the larger amplitude can be suppressed to the lower amplitude vibration
effectively. However, the lower amplitude vibration will last for a period of time to disappear, thus the decay rate is far
from satisfactory. By comparison, the decay rate of PPF controller for the lower amplitude vibration is faster than that of
the PD controller. This can be explained by the existence of the nonlinear factors, such as nonlinear friction torque,
backlash of the ballscrew system, etc.
The controlled time-domain responses under CMNGSAC algorithm using Eq. (23) are shown in Fig. 10. Comparing
Fig. 10 with Figs. 8 and 9, one can know that the CMNGSAC method can suppress both the larger and the lower amplitude
vibrations quickly and effectively. This is due to the fact that this controller has very advantageous adaptive nonlinear
damping properties. The advantage of the proposed control method is to achieve satisfactory vibration suppression results.
0 2 4 6 8 10
-10
-5
0
5
10
Time (s)
V
o
l
t
a
g
e

(
V
)
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
-10
-5
0
5
10
Time (s)
V
o
l
t
a
g
e

(
V
)
Fig. 8. Controlled time-domain responses under PD control: (a) the rst bending mode; (b) the rst two bending modes.
0 2 4 6 8 10
-10
-5
0
5
10
Time (s)
V
o
l
t
a
g
e

(
V
)
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
-10
-5
0
5
10
Time (s)
V
o
l
t
a
g
e

(
V
)
Fig. 9. Controlled time-domain responses under PPF control: (a) the rst bending mode; (b) the rst two bending modes.
Z.C. Qiu / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 30 (2012) 248266 260
In addition, different from the PPF control method, the CMNGSAC method does not require providing accurate modal
frequencies beforehand. The controller can not only enhance the performance, but also can be easily implemented.
4.4. Experiments on vibration suppression under resonant excitation
In this section, the PZT actuator is used to excite vibration of the exible beam persistently, acting at the structural
resonant frequency of the rst bending mode of the exible manipulator, i.e., o
ex
=2.0 Hz. The resonant frequency is
determined from the experimental identication results in Section 4.2. The AC servomotor is used to suppress the excited
resonant vibration. The control effect of the AC servomotor is applied to the system at the time t=5.0 s.
Experiments of resonant vibration control under persistent excitation were conducted using PD control, PPF control and
the CMNGSAC algorithm. And their experimental results are shown in Fig. 11. The rated power of AC servomotor is 400 W,
while the power of the PZT actuator used in this research is less than 2.0 W. Because the PZT actuator is used to excite the
resonant vibration persistently, the vibration can be suppressed eventually by AC motor to some smaller steady-state
amplitude but not zero. Furthermore, the smaller the controlled vibration amplitude is, the more effective the control
algorithm is. The experimental results can verify the ability of the control algorithm for disturbance suppression.
Signicantly, the amount of vibration reduction is greater for the CMNGSAC method than those of PD and PPF control
methods. The CMNGSAC method outperformed the PD and PPF control method, i.e. about 93.6% reduction in vibration for
CMNGSAC vs. 90.5% for PPF and 87.8% for PD method. Experimental comparison results show the advantage and
robustness of the proposed method. Here, the robustness of the proposed control method is its ability to withstand the
effects of persistent disturbance. From these data, it can be concluded that an effective damping of the nonlinear adaptive
feature can be achieved using the CMNGSAC method, contrary to the classical PD and PPF control.
4.5. Experiments on simultaneous translating and vibration suppression
In this section, experiments were conducted on simultaneous control of translating motion and vibration suppression
of the exible Cartesian manipulator. In this case, the desired control performance can be described as the slider
translating motion converges to the nal position, and the elastic vibrations are effectively suppressed. Theoretical
analysis was carried out in Section 3.3.
The desired speed trajectory is generated using so-called Linear Segments with Parabolic Blends (LSPB) [26]. This type
of trajectory has a Trapezoidal Velocity Prole and is appropriate when a constant velocity is desired along a portion of the
path. The LSPB trajectory is such that the velocity is initially ramped up to its desired value and then ramped down
when it approaches the global position [26].
The desired speed trajectory is planned just as shown in Fig. 12. The specic desired constant angular velocity of motor
is
_
y
d
=180rev=min; the desired angle acceleration is

y
d
=942:48rad=s
2
and

y
d
=942:48rad=s
2
for T-curve velocity
trajectory rising and descending moment, respectively. The initial translating motion time is t
1
=5.0 s, and the stopping
time is at t
2
=11.9 s, as shown in Fig. 12. The rising and the descending time is 0.02 s.
For the exible manipulator side, the desired translating velocity is _ s
d
=0:03 m=s, and the desired translating
acceleration is s
d
=1:5m=s
2
and s
d
=1:5m=s
2
for T-curve velocity trajectory rising and descending moment, respectively.
When the slider is driven to move along the desired speed, vibration will be caused due to inertia of the exible
manipulator. The experimental results of translating motion without active vibration control are shown in Fig. 13(a) and
Fig. 13(b). In Fig. 13(a), two maps are the translating motion speed and vibration response of the exible manipulator,
measured by the built-in encoder and the PZT sensor. The translating speed is obtained through the rotor rotating speed
0 2 4 6 8 10
-10
-5
0
5
10
Time (s)
V
o
l
t
a
g
e

(
V
)
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
-10
-5
0
5
10
Time (s)
V
o
l
t
a
g
e

(
V
)
Fig. 10. Controlled time-domain responses under CMNGSAC method: (a) the rst bending mode; (b) the rst two bending modes.
Z.C. Qiu / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 30 (2012) 248266 261
measured by the servomotors encoder. The relation is
_ s(t) =
_
y
r
(t)
200p
: (36)
The frequency response is shown in Fig. 13(b) by employing FFT for the time-domain vibration response shown in
Fig. 13(a). From Fig. 13(b), one can know that the frequencies of the rst two bending modes of vibration are o
1
=2.0 Hz
and o
2
=13.30 Hz. The modal frequencies in Fig. 13(b) and Fig. 4(b) are approximately equal. Therefore, the boundary
condition of the Cartesian exible manipulator is close to that of the cantilever beam. From the experimental results, one
can know that the vibration can be caused when the motor started translating and stopped, due to the beams exibility,
translational inertia, etc. Fig. 13(a) shows the result of translating motion and without active vibration control. It can be
known that the excited vibration amplitude of the exible link is larger and will last for a long time without active control.
Therefore, active vibration control should be applied to the system, for simultaneous translating and vibration suppression.
The experimental results of simultaneous translating motion and vibration control for exible Cartesian manipulator
are shown in Fig. 14(a)(c), respectively, using PD control, PPF control and CMNGSAC method. In Fig. 14, two maps of each
gure are the translating motion speed and vibration of the exible manipulator measured by the encoder and the PZT
sensor, respectively.
Comparing the experimental results shown in Fig. 14(a)(c) with those in Fig. 13(a), it can be seen that the vibrations
are suppressed largely by introducing active vibration control. By comparison, the CMNGSAC method can suppress the
excited vibration much more effectively for simultaneous translating motion control.
The sliders trajectory displacement tracking errors of different cases are shown in Fig. 15(a)(d). The small tracking
errors are caused during the moving process. This is because only PD control for trajectory motion is employed, without
using an integral element. The velocity response curves of Fig. 14(a)(c) are oscillatory compared with those of Fig. 13(a)
at the starting and the end of the T-curve velocity. Correspondingly, the displacement trajectory tracking errors of
Fig. 15(b)(d) have also oscillatory occurrence compared with those of Fig. 15(a). This is the reason why the control effect
is applied to the servomotor for active vibration control. From Fig. 15, it can be seen that the largest oscillatory amplitude
of PPF control is larger than those of PD control and the CMNGSAC method. The largest oscillatory amplitude of the
CMNGSAC method is approximately equal to that of PD control. However, the rate of decay of vibration is different.
0 5 10 15 20
-10
-5
0
5
10
Time (s)
V
o
l
t
a
g
e

(
V
)
0 5 10 15 20
-10
-5
0
5
10
Time (s)
V
o
l
t
a
g
e

(
V
)
0 5 10 15 20
-10
-5
0
5
10
Time (s)
V
o
l
t
a
g
e

(
V
)
0 10 20 30 40
-10
-5
0
5
10
Time (s)
V
o
l
t
a
g
e

(
V
)
Fig. 11. Active vibration control for persistent resonant excitation of the rst bending mode: (a) PD control; (b) PPF control; (c) CMNGSAC method;
(d) CMNGSAC method for comparatively long time.
Z.C. Qiu / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 30 (2012) 248266 262
Therefore, the adaptive nonlinear control method can enhance the damping for the lower amplitude vibration.
Experiments conrm that the CMNGSAC method can damp out the vibration in translating motion signicantly, especially
quick vibration suppression at the starting and stopping moment of the slider translating motion.
Remarks: in Section 3, the CMNGSAC method is equivalent to a kind of gain regulating PD controller, according to the
nonlinear adaptive tuning algorithm of this method. Compared with the constant gain PD and PPF control algorithms, it
exhibited the effectiveness due to the adaptive adjustment of the control parameters. Because of the introduction of
nonlinear switch adaptive control, the control action is enough but not so large for the large amplitude vibration, while the
V
e
l
o
c
i
t
y

t
r
a
j
e
c
t
o
r
y

Time (s)
t
1
t
2
0
0 5 10 15 20
-0.1
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
Time (s)
D
i
s
p
l
a
c
e
m
e
n
t

(
m
)
0 5 10 15 20
-0.02
0
0.02
0.04
Time (s)
S
p
e
e
d

(
m
/
s
)
Fig. 12. Motion planning for the driving system tracking a reference trajectory: (a) speed trajectory planning of motor rotating motion; (b) displacement
and speed trajectory planning of the sliders motion.
0 5 10 15 20
-0.02
0
0.02
0.04
Time (s)
S
p
e
e
d

(
m
/
s
)
0 5 10 15 20
-10
-5
0
5
10
Time (s)
V
o
l
t
a
g
e

(
V
)
10
0
10
1
-60
-50
-40
-30
-20
-10
0
10
20
F
R
F

M
a
g
n
i
t
u
d
e

(
d
B
)
Frequency (Hz)
Fig. 13. Translating and without vibration control: (a) time-domain signal; (b) frequency response.
Z.C. Qiu / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 30 (2012) 248266 263
control effect can be enhanced in comparison with the constant gain controller. Therefore, the stability will not be affected,
and the low amplitude residual vibration can be suppressed quickly, just as shown in Sections 4.3 and 4.5, for the
experimental results of the set-point vibration control and simultaneous translating and vibration suppression. For
vibration suppression under resonant excitation, as shown in Section 4.4, the CMNGSAC method shows its advantage for
disturbance attenuation. In summary, the above-mentioned three experimental cases can show the advantages of the
nonlinear adaptive control and the effectiveness of the CMNGSAC method.
The authors future research work will be conducted using the widely used control approaches, such as model-based
control, model reference adaptive control, model-based robust control, etc. By comparison, it is expected to show the
characteristics and robustness of the all the control methods due to model uncertainties and load variation.
5. Conclusions
This paper presents the theoretical analyses and experimental results of the CMNGSAC method for vibration
suppression of exible Cartesian smart material robot. The stability and performance of the CMNGSAC method were
analyzed theoretically. Experimental comparison researches of different control methods were conducted, including set-
point vibration control, resonant vibration suppression under persistent excitation and simultaneous control of translating
motion and vibration suppression. For the set-point and translating motion cases, experiments show that the adopted
algorithm can not only substantially suppress the larger amplitude vibration, but also signicantly damp out the lower
amplitude vibration faster than the traditional control schemes. For resonant vibration suppression under persistent
excitation, experiments conrm that the CMNGSAC methods also show good robustness, i.e., the vibration amplitude was
attenuated much lower. Experimental results on active vibration control for exible Cartesian smart beam have shown
0 5 10 15 20
-0.02
0
0.02
0.04
Time (s)
S
p
e
e
d

(
m
/
s
)
0 5 10 15 20
-10
-5
0
5
10
Time (s)
V
o
l
t
a
g
e

(
V
)
0 5 10 15 20
-0.02
0
0.02
0.04
Time (s)
S
p
e
e
d

(
m
/
s
)
0 5 10 15 20
-10
-5
0
5
10
Time (s)
V
o
l
t
a
g
e

(
V
)
0 5 10 15 20
-0.02
0
0.02
0.04
Time (s)
S
p
e
e
d

(
m
/
s
)
0 5 10 15 20
-10
-5
0
5
10
Time (s)
V
o
l
t
a
g
e

(
V
)
Fig. 14. Simultaneous translating and active vibration control: (a) PD control; (b) PPF control; (c) CMNGSAC method.
Z.C. Qiu / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 30 (2012) 248266 264
that the adopted CMNGSAC method is stable and can yield satisfactory vibration suppression effect for the Cartesian
manipulator. Experiments veried the theoretical analyses.
Acknowledgments
This work was partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants 51175181,
60404020 and 90505014, partially supported by the State Key Laboratory of Robotics Foundation (RLO200805) and in part
supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, SCUT (2009ZM0148, 2012ZZ0060). The author
gratefully acknowledges these support agencies. The author would like to thank Professor Wu H.X. for his valuable
suggestions and discussion.
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0 5 10 15 20
-1
-0.5
0
0.5
1
x 10
-3
Time (s)
D
i
s
p
l
a
c
e
m
e
n
t

e
r
r
o
r

(
m
)
0 5 10 15 20
-1
-0.5
0
0.5
1
x 10
-3
Time (s)
D
i
s
p
l
a
c
e
m
e
n
t

e
r
r
o
r

(
m
)
0 5 10 15 20
-1
-0.5
0
0.5
1
x 10
-3
Time (s)
D
i
s
p
l
a
c
e
m
e
n
t

e
r
r
o
r

(
m
)
0 5 10 15 20
-1
-0.5
0
0.5
1
x 10
-3
Time (s)
D
i
s
p
l
a
c
e
m
e
n
t

e
r
r
o
r

(
m
)
Fig. 15. Trajectory tracking displacement error: (a) without active vibration control; (b) PD control; (c) PPF control; (d) CMNGSAC method.
Z.C. Qiu / Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 30 (2012) 248266 265
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