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Lee, Gordon

Publications and source records attributed to Lee, Gordon.

Telerobotic control of a mobile coordinated robotic server, executive summary

This interim report continues with the research effort on advanced adaptive controls for space robotics systems. In particular, previous results developed by the principle investigator and his research team centered around fuzzy logic control (FLC) in which the lack of knowledge of the robotic system as well as the uncertainties of the environment are compensated for by a rule base structure which interacts with varying degrees of belief of control action using system measurements. An on-line adaptive algorithm was developed using a single parameter tuning scheme. In the effort presented, the methodology is further developed to include on-line scaling factor tuning and self-learning control as well as extended to the multi-input, multi-output (MIMO) case. Classical fuzzy logic control requires tuning input scale factors off-line through trial and error techniques. This is time-consuming and cannot adapt to new changes in the process. The new adaptive FLC includes a self-tuning scheme for choosing the scaling factors on-line. Further the rule base in classical FLC is usually produced by soliciting knowledge from human operators as to what is good control action for given circumstances. This usually requires full knowledge and experience of the process and operating conditions, which limits applicability. A self-learning scheme is developed which adaptively forms the rule base with very limited knowledge of the process. Finally, a MIMO method is presented employing optimization techniques. This is required for application to space robotics in which several degrees-of-freedom links are commonly used. Simulation examples are presented for terminal control - typical of robotic problems in which a desired terminal point is to be reached for each link. Future activities will be to implement the MIMO adaptive FLC on an INTEL microcontroller-based circuit and to test the algorithm on a robotic system at the Mars Mission Research Center at North Carolina State University.

Lee, Gordon

Telerobotic control of a mobile coordinated robotic server

The annual report on telerobotic control of a mobile coordinated robotic server is presented. The goal of this effort is to develop advanced control methods for flexible space manipulator systems. As such, an adaptive fuzzy logic controller was developed in which model structure as well as parameter constraints are not required for compensation. The work builds upon previous work on fuzzy logic controllers. Fuzzy logic controllers have been growing in importance in the field of automatic feedback control. Hardware controllers using fuzzy logic have become available as an alternative to the traditional PID controllers. Software has also been introduced to aid in the development of fuzzy logic rule-bases. The advantages of using fuzzy logic controllers include the ability to merge the experience and intuition of expert operators into the rule-base and that a model of the system is not required to construct the controller. A drawback of the classical fuzzy logic controller, however, is the many parameters needed to be turned off-line prior to application in the closed-loop. In this report, an adaptive fuzzy logic controller is developed requiring no system model or model structure. The rule-base is defined to approximate a state-feedback controller while a second fuzzy logic algorithm varies, on-line, parameters of the defining controller. Results indicate the approach is viable for on-line adaptive control of systems when the model is too complex or uncertain for application of other more classical control techniques.

Lee, Gordon

Frequency domain state-space system identification

An algorithm for identifying state-space models from frequency response data of linear systems is presented. A matrix-fraction description of the transfer function is employed to curve-fit the frequency response data, using the least-squares method. The parameters of the matrix-fraction representation are then used to construct the Markov parameters of the system. Finally, state-space models are obtained through the Eigensystem Realization Algorithm using Markov parameters. The main advantage of this approach is that the curve-fitting and the Markov parameter construction are linear problems which avoid the difficulties of nonlinear optimization of other approaches. Another advantage is that it avoids windowing distortions associated with other frequency domain methods.

Chen, Chung-Wen

Several recursive techniques for observer/Kalman filter system identification from data

This paper derives algorithms for identifying autoregressive models, with external input, of multi-input multi-output systems from data using a fast transversal filter or a least-squares lattice filter. The autoregressive models including external inputs are used to identify state-space models and the corresponding observer/Kalman filter gains of the system. The derivation is an extension of scalar autoregressive model approaches, modified to cope with multivariables, external inputs and an extra direct-influence term. Comparisons between the fast transversal filter, the least-squares lattice filter and the classical least-squares method are made in terms of complexity, computational cost and practical applications issues. A numerical example is included to illustrate the approach.

Chen, Chung-Wen

Telerobotic control of a mobile coordinated robotic server

Results from the Master's Degree Thesis of Mr. Robert Stanley, a graduate student supervised by the principal investigator on this project is reported. The goal of this effort is to develop advanced control methods for flexible space manipulator systems. As such, a fuzzy logic controller has been developed in which model structure as well as parameter constraints are not required for compensation. A general rule base is formulated using quantized linguistic terms; it is then augmented to a traditional integral control. The resulting hybrid fuzzy controller stabilizes the structure over a broad range of uncertainties, including unknown initial conditions. An off-line tuning approach using phase portraits gives further insight into the algorithm. The approach was applied to a three-degree-of-freedom manipulator system - the prototype of the coordinated flexible manipulator system currently being designed and built at North Carolina State University.

Lee, Gordon