Adaptive Optimal Motion Control of Uncertain Underactuated Mechatronic Systems With Actuator Constraints

Underactuated mechatronic systems are widely used in industrial production, where the control efforts and operation accuracy are both important aspects of performance evaluations. Hence, how to realize effective motion control, while reducing control efforts as much as possible, becomes an open problem for underactuated systems. Although some open loop approaches (e.g., trajectory planning) take energy optimization into account, they need linearization/approximation manipulations and exhibit weak robustness, which is prone to degrading practical control performance. To this end, this article proposes an adaptive tracking controller for uncertain multi-input-multi-output (MIMO) underactuated mechatronic systems, to fulfill accurate positioning/tracking control with saturated inputs and reduce control efforts as well. Particularly, by elaborately developing an auxiliary compensation term and a robust term, the proposed controller ensures asymptotic convergence of both actuated and unactuated variables. Meanwhile, the modified performance index function is approximated online and introduced into the Lyapunov function candidate to make the stability analysis process more concise. To the best of our knowledge, without the need of offline computation and the persistence of excitation (PE) condition, this article presents the first adaptive optimal controller to simultaneously achieve error elimination, control effort optimization, and actuator constraints for a class of underactuated systems. Finally, strict theoretical analysis and experimental validations show the effectiveness and robustness of the suggested controller.

Automated summary

This article proposes an adaptive tracking controller for underactuated mechatronic systems, aiming to achieve accurate positioning/tracking control while minimizing control effort. By developing an auxiliary compensation term and a robust term, the proposed controller ensures convergence of both actuated and unactuated variables. The controller also incorporates an online approximation of the performance index function, making the stability analysis process more concise.