Computationally Efficient Predictive Robot Control

• Published in: IEEE/ASME transactions on mechatronics Vol. 12; no. 5; pp. 570 - 578
• Main Authors: Duchaine, V., Bouchard, S., Gosselin, C.M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.10.2007; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Aerodynamics; Cable-driven mechanism; Controllers; Manipulator dynamics; Manipulators; Mathematical models; nonlinear control; Nonlinearity; Optimal control; parallel mechanism; PD control; position control; Predictive control; Predictive models; Robot arms; Robot control; robot manipulators; Robots; Service robots; Studies; Three-term control; Velocity control
• ISSN: 1083-4435; 1941-014X
• DOI: 10.1109/TMECH.2007.905722

Conventional linear controllers (PID) are not really suitable for the control of robot manipulators due to the highly nonlinear behavior of the latter. Over the last decades, several control methods have been proposed to circumvent this limitation. This paper presents an approach to the control of manipulators using a computationally-efficient-model-based predictive control scheme. First, a general predictive control law is derived for position tracking and velocity control, taking into account the dynamic model of the robot, the prediction and control horizons, and also the constraints. However, the main contribution of this paper is the derivation of an analytical expression for the optimal control to be applied that does not involve a numerical procedure, as opposed to most predictive control schemes. In the last part of the paper, the effectiveness of the approach for the control of a nonlinear plant is illustrated using a direct-drive pendulum, and then, the approach is validated and compared to a PID controller using an experimental implementation on a 6-DOF cable-driven parallel manipulator.