Design and Tuning of a Distributed Fuzzy Logic Controller for Flexible-Link Manipulators

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2001

Publication Title

Journal of Intelligent and Fuzzy Systems

Volume

10

Issue

3-4

First page number:

215

Last page number:

233

Abstract

Fuzzy logic control is already in use due to its computational efficiency and robustness. If a person is sufficiently familiar with a system, intuition can be used as a basis to design a fuzzy controller for it. It may be difficult to accurately describe the behavior for flexible manipulators as their variables are strongly coupled. This paper reviews existing fuzzy logic controllers for flexible manipulators and discusses some of their limitations. It presents an alternative structure using a distributed fuzzy logic controller that controls angle and link vibrations of flexible manipulators independently. While the rules and structure of the proposed distributed controller offers significant advantages compared to those available in literature, its performance still depends on the membership functions for its input and output variables. Wrong choices of these membership functions may lead to sluggish response, excessive vibration, or instability. The paper presents a novel algorithm, Low Dimensionality Tuning Algorithm (LDTA), for tuning a fuzzy controller by changing the membership functions of its variables using nonlinear programming. LDTA uses only two variables to describe each fuzzy variable to avoid dimensionality problems associated with searching for a solution to problems with large number of variables. The paper also discusses possibilities of simplifying the tuned fuzzy controller.

Keywords

Automatic control; Flexible manipulators; Fuzzy logic control; Manipulators (Mechanism); Nonlinear programming; Optimization; Tuning

Disciplines

Acoustics, Dynamics, and Controls | Applied Mathematics | Computer-Aided Engineering and Design | Controls and Control Theory | Control Theory | Electrical and Computer Engineering | Mechanical Engineering | Robotics

Language

English

Permissions

Use Find in Your Library, contact the author, or use interlibrary loan to garner a copy of the article. Publisher copyright policy allows author to archive post-print (author’s final manuscript). When post-print is available or publisher policy changes, the article will be deposited

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