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In this paper, a new predictive approach is proposed for the impedance control of bilateral drive-by-wire teleoperation systems. The proposed control structure includes two mirror predictors/ observers in both the master and slave sides. These predictors/ observers are used to simultaneously estimate the master and slave internal dynamics, and thereby to avoid the use of the delayed transmitted information. As a consequence, the influence of the delay on the whole system can be minimized and the performance can be improved. Under a set of suited hypotheses, the proposed control structure is shown to be uniformly ultimate stable, even in the presence of time-varying delays. Simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The behavior of the control structure is also experimentally demonstrated while performing remote steering of a small autonomous vehicle. Index Terms--Bilateral teleoperation systems, delayed systems, network-controlled systems, predictive approach, tlme-varying delays.

In this paper, a modular control approach is applied to a permanent-magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) speed control. Based on the functioning of the individual module, the modular approach enables the powerfully intelligent and robust control modules to easily replace any existing module which does not perform well, meanwhile retaining other existing modules which are still effective. Property analysis is first conducted for the existing function modules in a conventional PMSM control system: proportional--integral (PI) speed control module, reference current-generating module, and PI current control module. Next, it is shown that the conventional PMSM controller is not able to reject the torque pulsation which is the main hurdle when PMSM is used as a high-performance servo. By virtue of the internal model, to nullify the torque pulsation it is imperative to incorporate an internal model in the feed-through path. This is achieved by replacing the reference current-generating module with an iterative learning control (ILC) module. The ILC module records the cyclic torque and reference current signals over one entire cycle, and then uses those signals to update the reference current for the next cycle. As a consequence, the torque pulsation can be reduced significantly. In order to estimate the torque ripples which may exceed certain bandwidth of a torque transducer, a novel torque estimation module using a gain-shaped sliding-mode observer is further developed to facilitate the implementation of torque learning control. The proposed control system is evaluated through real-time implementation and experimental results validate the effectiveness. Index Terms--Iterative learning, modular approach, permanent-magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) speed control, pulsation torque minimization, sliding mode, torque observer.

It is well known by equivalent control theory, that in the sliding mode a low-pass filter, working as an average operator, can capture the desired control fairly well from the switching control signals. However, directly adding the filtered signals in parallel with the switching control does not warrant any improvement in the control system performance. In this work, we make clear the underlying reason why the sliding mode control (SMC) system does not function properly with such a simple closed-loop filtering structure. The correct way of incorporating the closed-loop filtering into SMC requires a second low-pass filter, which works concurrently with the first low pass filter to scale down the gain of the switching control. The SMC system with the new closed-loop filtering is able to realize the acquisition of equivalent control or estimate the disturbance, effectively reduce the switching gain to the minimum level, and as a result to eliminate chattering. Complementary to existing SMC, the proposed control system can easily incorporate feed-forward control into the closed-loop for bounded system perturbations. In addition, the frequency-domain knowledge can be easily used to construct the two filters. Index Terms--Closed-loop filtering, nonlinear systems, sliding mode control, Van der Pol circuits.

In this paper, a gain scheduled sliding mode control (SMC) scheme is proposed for tracking control tasks of multilink robotic manipulators. In the new scheme, filtering techniques play the key role in acquiring equivalent control signals and scheduling the switching control gain automatically. Once the system enters the sliding motion, two classes of low-pass filters are introduced to work concurrently for the purpose of acquiring equivalent control, reducing the switching gain effectively, and as a result eliminating chattering. By virtue of equivalent control theory, one class of filters is designed to capture the 'average' profile of the switching quantity, which is in proportion to the desired control input. Meanwhile, another class of low-pass filters is added to scale down the gain of the switching control. The convergence property of the proposed control scheme is rigorously analyzed in time domain and the frequency domain knowledge can be easily incorporated into the construction of the two classes of filters. Excellent tracking performance is achieved with the direct manipulation of switching control input using filtering technology and with the integration of both time domain and frequency domain system knowledge in controller design. [S0022-0434(00)01604-X]