Abstract
Ionic polymer-metal composites (IPMCs) are promising candidates in various sensing and actuation applications due to their light weight, large bending, and low actuation voltage requirements. However, IPMCs are still in the early stage of development, and their bending response can vary widely depending on various factors such as fabrication process, water content, temperature, and contact with electrodes. To control IPMCs in a predictable manner and to minimize the effects of plant uncertainty and external disturbances, a precise and robust control scheme is required. In the present work, a three-part adaptive feedforward control architecture is employed for IPMC deflection control. First, adaptive identification is performed to identify changes in the dynamic behavior over time and in the input voltage using a gradient descent method. Second, an adaptive feedforward controller is implemented to control the dynamic response of the plant, where the IPMC displacement is observed and is used to adjust the parameters of the controller. Third, noise and disturbance cancelling is performed using an additional adaptive canceller, which does not affect the system dynamics. Our results show that the adaptive identification and feedforward controller with disturbance cancellation using the gradient descent method provides accurate tracking performance under plant variation and disturbance. Especially, the fast convergence speed of the proposed technique makes it practical for online control.
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This paper was recommended for publication in revised form by Associate Editor Junzhi Yu
Seonhyeok Kang received B.S. and M.S. degrees in aerospace engineering from the University of Ulsan and the Seoul National University, Korea, in 2006 and 2008, respectively. He is currently pursuing the Ph.D degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering from the Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea. His research interests include robust control of smart materials, pursuit-evasion games, and missile guidance and control.
Woojin Kim received his B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Korea Advanced Institute of Technology, Korea, in 2008. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D in mechanical and aerospace engineering from the Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea. His research interests are controls of smart materials, coordination and applications of networked systems.
H. Jin Kim received her B.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Korean Advanced Institute of Technology, Korea, in 1995, and M.S. and Ph.D degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, USA, in 1999 and 2001, respectively. From 2002 to 2004, she was a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer in the department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at University of California, Berkeley. In 2004, she joined the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Seoul National University as an Assistant Professor, where she is currently an Associate Professor. Her research interests are robotics and intelligent control.
Jaegyun Park received B.S. and M.S degrees in civil engineering from Seoul National University, Korea, in 1993 and 1995, respectively. He received his Ph.D from the University of California, Berkeley, USA, in 2002. From 2002 to 2003, he was a postdoctoral researcher in the Structural Mechanics division at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2004, he joined Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Dankook University, Korea, as a Professor. His major research area is material modeling and nonlinear structural analysis.
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Kang, S., Kim, W., Jin Kim, H. et al. Adaptive feedforward control of ionic polymer metal composites with disturbance cancellation. J Mech Sci Technol 26, 205–212 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-011-0916-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-011-0916-8