Fuzzy PID control of a flexible-joint robot arm with uncertainties from time-varying loads

This paper presents the design and experiment of a fuzzy proportional integral derivative (PID) controller for a flexible-joint robot arm with uncertainties from time-varying loads. Experimental results have shown remarkable tracking performance of this fuzzy PID controller, and have convincingly demonstrated that fuzzy logic control can be used for flexible-joint robot arms with uncertainties and it is quite robust. In this paper, the fuzzy PID controller is first described briefly, using a simple and practical PD+I controller configuration. This configuration preserves the linear structure of the conventional PD+I controller, but has nonconstant gains: the proportional, integral, and derivative gains are nonlinear functions of their input signals, which have self-tuning (adaptive) capabilities in set-point tracking performance. Moreover, these variable gains make the fuzzy PID controller robust with faster response time and less overshoot than its conventional counterpart. The proposed design was tested using a flexible-joint robot arm driven by a DC motor in a laboratory, where the arm was experienced with time-varying loads. Control performance by the conventional and fuzzy PID controllers for such a laboratory robotic system are both included in this paper for comparison.