Search results for "Control and Systems Engineering"
showing 10 items of 994 documents
Autonomous ultrasonic inspection using Bayesian optimisation and robust outlier analysis
2020
The use of robotics is beginning to play a key role in automating the data collection process in Non Destructive Testing (NDT). Increasing the use of automation quickly leads to the gathering of large quantities of data, which makes it inefficient, perhaps even infeasible, for a human to parse the information contained in them. This paper presents a solution to this problem by making the process of NDT data acquisition an autonomous one as opposed to an automatic one. In order to achieve this, the robotic data acquisition task is treated as an optimisation problem, where one seeks to find locations with the highest indication of damage. The resulting algorithm combines damage detection tech…
Engineering insights from an anthropocentric cyber-physical system: A case study for an assembly station
2016
Abstract To effectively cope with the complexity of manufacturing control problems the cyber-physical systems are engineered to work in the social space. Therefore the research in the field of cyber-physical systems needs to address social aspects when this concept is adopted in factory automation. The paper argues for an anthropocentric cyber-physical reference model as the basic decomposition unit for the design of distributed manufacturing control systems. The model assimilates all the required components (i.e. physical, computational and human) of a synthetic hybrid system in an integrated way. This is due to the real need to design cyber-physical production systems where the technologi…
Adaptive consensus of uncertain nonlinear systems with event triggered communication and intermittent actuator faults
2019
This paper investigates distributed consensus tracking problem for uncertain nonlinear systems with event-triggered communication. The common desired trajectory information and each subsystem's state will be broadcast to their linked subsystems only when predefined triggering conditions are satisfied. Compared with the existing related literature, the main features of the results presented in this paper include four folds. (i) A totally distributed adaptive control scheme is developed for multiple nonlinear systems without Lipschitz condition, while with parametric uncertainties. (ii) The derivative of desired trajectory function is allowed unknown by all subsystems and directed communicati…
Modular Contact-Free Conveyors for Handling Planar Fragile Objects
2017
Recent studies show that the handling of thin wafers in the photovoltaic industry can lead to unacceptable yields due to cell scratching and breaking. This paper presents the concept and design of a novel modular conveyor that is intended for handling planar fragile objects at a high speed without contact. Each element of the conveyor is a square block that is able to generate tilted air jets that lift and push the object in a single direction. Various handling functions can thus be achieved by the assembly of several blocks. To manage the complexity of assembling systems composed of hundreds of blocks, an automatized design methodology is proposed. This process gives the best topology of t…
Robust adaptive tracking control of uncertain systems with time-varying input delays
2017
ABSTRACTIn this paper, the problem of robust adaptive tracking control of uncertain systems with time-varying input delays is studied. Under some mild assumptions, a robust adaptive controller is designed by using adaptive backstepping technique such that the system is globally stable and the system output can track a given reference signal. At the same time, a root mean square type of bound is obtained for the tracking error as a function of design parameters and thus can be adjusted. Finally, one numerical example is given to show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.
Adaptive Control of Soft Robots Based on an Enhanced 3D Augmented Rigid Robot Matching
2021
Despite having proven successful in generating precise motions under dynamic conditions in highly deformable soft-bodied robots, model based techniques are also prone to robustness issues connected to the intrinsic uncertain nature of the dynamics of these systems. This letter aims at tackling this challenge, by extending the augmented rigid robot formulation to a stable representation of three dimensional motions of soft robots, under Piecewise Constant Curvature hypothesis. In turn, the equivalence between soft-bodied and rigid robots permits to derive effective adaptive controllers for soft-bodied robots, achieving perfect posture regulation under considerable errors in the knowledge of …
Event-triggered robust adaptive control for discrete time uncertain systems with unmodelled dynamics and disturbances
2019
In practice, modelling errors caused by high-order unmodelled dynamics and external disturbances are unavoidable. How to ensure the robustness of an adaptive controller with respect to such modelling errors is always a critical concern. In this study, the authors consider the design of event-triggered robust adaptive control for a class of discrete-time uncertain systems which involve such modelling errors and also are allowed to be non-minimum phase. Unlike some existing event-triggered control schemes, the developed controllers do not require that the measurement errors meet the corresponding input-to-state stable condition. Global stability of the closed-loop system which means that all …
Dynamic Modeling, Energy Analysis, and Path Planning of Spherical Robots on Uneven Terrains
2020
Spherical robots are generally comprised of a spherical shell and an internal actuation unit. These robots have a variety of applications ranging from search and rescue to agriculture. Although one of the main advantages of spherical robots is their capability to operate on uneven surfaces, energy analysis and path planning of such systems have been studied only for flat terrains. This work introduces a novel approach to evaluate the dynamic equations, energy consumption, and separation analysis of these robots rolling on uneven terrains. The presented dynamics modeling, separation analysis, and energy analysis allow us to implement path planning algorithms to find an optimal path. One of t…
A Comparison Study of a Novel Self-Contained Electro-Hydraulic Cylinder versus a Conventional Valve-Controlled Actuator—Part 2: Energy Efficiency
2019
This research paper presents the second part of a comparative analysis of a novel self-contained electro-hydraulic cylinder with passive load-holding capability against a state of the art, valve-controlled hydraulic system that is typically used in load-carrying applications. After addressing the control design and motion performance in the first part of the study, the comparison is now focused on the systems&rsquo
An Input Observer-Based Stiffness Estimation Approach for Flexible Robot Joints
2020
This letter addresses the stiffness estimation problem for flexible robot joints, driven by variable stiffness actuators in antagonistic setups. Due to the difficulties of achieving consistent production of these actuators and the time-varying nature of their internal flexible elements, which are subject to plastic deformation over time, it is currently a challenge to precisely determine the total flexibility torque applied to a robot's joint and the corresponding joint stiffness. Herein, by considering the flexibility torque acting on each motor as an unknown signal and building upon Unknown Input Observer theory, a solution for electrically-driven actuators is proposed, which consists of …