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A fuzzy controller with grey prediction for robot

motion control
a b
SHIUH-JER HUANG & RUEY-JING LIAN
a
Mechanical Engineering Department , National Taiwan University or Science and
Technology , 43 Keelung Road, Sec. 4, Taipei, Taiwan, 106
b
Mechanical Engineering Department , Nankai Junior College of Technology and Commerce ,
568 Chungcheng Road, Caotun, Nantou, Taiwan, 542
Published online: 16 May 2007.

To cite this article: SHIUH-JER HUANG & RUEY-JING LIAN (1998) A fuzzy controller with grey prediction for robot motion
control, International Journal of Systems Science, 29:4, 341-351, DOI: 10.1080/00207729808929527

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 International Journal of Systems Science, 1998, volume 29, number 4, pages 341-351

A fuzzy controller with grey prediction for robot motion control

SHIUH-JER HUANGt and RUEy-JING LIANt

The currelll position error and error change are usually employed in the operation of
fuzzy logic COlli roller for picking out an appropriate rule. However. when the system
possesses high planning speed or time-varying behaviour. the requisite tracking accu-
racy is difficult to achieve by adjusting the fuzzy rules. In order to improve control
accuracy and system robustness for robotic applications. a fuzzy controller incorporat-
ing a system output prediction strategy is proposed to manipulate the robotic motion.
The current position error and error change in the fuzzy rules look-up table are sub-
Downloaded by [University of Otago] at 01:57 08 January 2015

stituted in this approach by the predictive position error and error change of the next
step. derived from a grey prediction algorithm. This controller was implemented on a
four-degree-of-freedom robot. The experimental results show that this fuzzy controller
effectively improves the system performance and achieves the envisaged benefit offuzzy
controller implementation.

I. Introduction transient behaviour and the robustness with respect to

Industrial automation is one of the most effective
approaches for improving the productivity and quality,
and a robot is one of the important machines for such
automation. The robotic manipulator can be applied in
dangerous environments or for routine labour-intensive
jobs instead of workers. Usually, since these manipula-
tors are used to execute high-precision actions, the con-
troller should effectively and accurately control the
robotic motion trajectory. Therefore, it is important to
develop an effective control technique for precise robot
motion control.
In recent years, adapative control theory has been
widely employed to design a controller for robotic sys-
tems. Dessaint et al. (1992) have employed a direct
adaptive controller for trajectory tracking control of a
high-speed robot. Yu et 01. (1993) have developed a new
control scheme which combines the direct adaptive con-
trol law with a variable-structure control law for non-
linear robotic manipulator systems. This adaptive
control combination has been shown to improve the
Received 29 November 1996. Revised 4 August 1997. Accepted 2
October 1997.
t Mechanical Engineering Department, National Taiwan University
or Science and Technology. 43 Keelung Road. Sec. 4, Taipei, Taiwan
106.
t Mechanical Engineering Department, Nankai Junior College of
Technology and Commerce, 568 Chungeheng Road, Caotun,
Nantou. Taiwan 542.
the external input disturbance and unmodelled
dynamics, and also to overcome the chattering problem
which is one of the main drawbacks of the variable-
structure method. However, the application of adaptive
control approach still needs some knowledge about the
system order and range of variations, and its output
response has oscillatory features during the initial
learning interval.
Since the dynamic model of a robot with high degrees
of freedom (DOFs) is very complicated, model-based
traditional controllers face on-line computation prob-
lems during their implementation. Hence the develop-
ment of model-free intelligent controllers is attracting
recent attention, in particular. Fuzzy logic control is a
promising approach. Fuzzy algorithms have demon-
strated their superiority over conventional control
schemes in robotic system control in recent years (for
example Wakileh and Gill (1988), Nedungadi and
Wezzel (1991), Zhou and Raju (1993) and Kim and
Lee (1993. Rainer (1992) has employed fuzzy rules to
control a redundant manipulator, while Wang and
Tsuchiya (1994) have proposed a new fuzzy trajectory
planning method to control robot motion. Wohlke and
Fatikow (1993) developed an intelligent control strategy
for a microrobotic system, based on the combination of
a neural network controller and fuzzy logic controller.
Tang and Chen (1994) have proposed a robust fuzzy
proportional-plus-integral controller for controlling a
flexible robot arm with uncertainties. However, the

0020-7721/98 $12.00 (9 1998 Taylor & Francis Ltd.

 342 S.-J. Huang and R.-J. Lian

Interface
Card Robot Manipulators

Encoder
1--..-oilpCL 83311E---------l

Encoder
1--...-IlpCL 83311E---------l
R

Figure I. The experimental set-up

Downloaded by [University of Otago] at 01:57 08 January 2015

of this robotic control system.

application of fuzzy logic control still needs considerable
effort to find the appropriate membership functions and
fuzzy rules, especially when the system is complicated or
rapidly changing. The robotic system obviously pos-
sesses nonlinear features due to gravitational force,
coupling of the joints, and the clearance of transmission
mechanism. These factors significantly increase the diffi-
culties in designing a traditional fuzzy controller for
robots.
With the recent development of grey theory and
microprocessors, the grey control theory is being
increasingly applied in various fields of engineering
(for example Lin (1989), Yiand Yang (1990) and Liu
et al, (1992)). In the present study, a grey prediction
algorithm is employed to estimate the system's next
step output for a look-ahead fuzzy controller, which is
based on the predictive position error and error change.
The proposed control strategy reduces the difficulties in
implementing the fuzzy controller and improves the con-
trol performance of traditional fuzzy controller, by
using a predictor to pre-compensate the system output
error instead of post-compensation. This strategy also
effectively improves the time delay problem of control
system.
motor have 4000 pulses per revolution. This robotic
system is controlled by an IBM PC 486-DX2-66,
which is used as the central processing unit to handle
all the input-output data for the whole system and to
calculate the control parameters. The requisite interface
consists of one piece of PCL-726 with 5 channels digital
to analogue, one piece of PCL-711 digital input and
digital output card with 16 channels and two pieces of
PCL-833 cards with three channels of decoders,
obtained from Advantech. The structure of this robotic
manipulator control system and its joint's coordinates
are shown in figure I. The transmission system of each
joint of this robot has one harmonic drive with gear
ratio 100:1.
In order to evaluate the control performance of
robotic manipulator trajectory tracking, kinematic and
inverse kinematic equations are first established for
relating the joint-variable space and Cartesian space.
The joint parameters, defined as per the rules established
by the Denavit-Hartenberg (D-H) representation, are
listed in table I. These joint parameters can be used to
determine the position and orientation of the manipu-
lator through a homogeneous transformation. Accord-

Table I. Parameters of robot manipulators

2. System structure and coordinate system Joint OJ Qj (Ii d,
In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed (deg) (deg) (mm) (mm)
controller based upon the system response, a four-DOF
I 90.0 90.0 0.0 210.0
robot was designed and constructed in our laboratory.
2 90.0 0.0 490.0 87.0
Each joint of this joint coordinate robot is driven by an -90.0 0.0 -600.0 -67.5
3
ac servo motor with AFS-type driver, obtained from 4 0.0 90.0 -50.0 0.0
Wacogiken. The drivers of these ac motors are of volt- S 0.0 0.0 0.0 68.0
age input control type. The encoders of each servo
 Fuzzy controller for robot motion control 343

ing to the joint parameters listed in table I, the trans- where C, == cos OJ, s, == sin OJ, Cij == cos (OJ + OJ), Sij ==
formation matrix [ToL which specifies the initial position sin (OJ + OJ)' Cijk == cos (OJ + OJ + Ok), 5ijk == sin (Oi + OJ + Ok)
and orientation of this manipulator end effector with and
respect to base coordinate system, is
fl = {/2 C2 + {/3 C23 + {/4 C234 + d SS234 ,
0 0 o 19,5] h = -dS C234 + {/2 S2 + {/3 S23 + (/4 S234'
I 0 o -650.0 .
[To] = By comparing the terms on both sides of equation (2),
[o 0 -I 632.0
one can obtain
o 0 o 1.0
(3)
The corresponding inverse kinematic equation is a
transformation from Cartesian space to joint space After some triangular mathematical operations, 0 1 can
coordinates. Generally, the position and orientation can be solved as
be calculated separately for a traditional PUMA robot. 2 2] 1/2
However, since the position and orientation of the pres- 0 1 = 2tan
_I P,[r x+P).-(d
.,,2
2+d3 ) ]
(4)
ent robotic system are coupled at each joint, they must [ d2 + d3 - pv
be solved simultaneously. The transformation matrix for
Other joint angles can be solved similarly. Based on
the position and orientation of the end effector of this
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these kinematic and inverse kinematic equations, the

robot is
joint and Cartesian space trajectory planning can be
s R
~]
carried out and the robot motion control performance
can be evaluated.
o o The dynamic model of this robotic system is complex
N,. S" R, P, and possesss nonlinear time-varying characteristics. In
addition, the system dynamics also exhibit inherent non-
Ny Sy Ry Py
(I) linear behaviours such as backlash, friction, Coriolis
Nz Sz Rz p- coupling and gravity force during operation. There-
fore, traditional model-based contol theory is difficult
O 0 0
to apply to this complicated robotic system. Hence,
where A j is a D-H homogeneous transformation matrix the excellent model-free characteristics of fuzzy control
of each joint for i = 1,2,3,4, S. and grey prediction algorithm are employed to control
this time-varying complex system.
- cos aj sin OJ sin ai sin Oi
[CO,"
sinOj cos o.cos e, -sinajcosOj """0,]
{/jsinOi
A= 0 3. Grey system prediction
I
sinai cos o, d.I '
0 0 0 I Grey theory treats any random variations as a variation
in the grey value in a certain range, and the random
where OJ, aj, a, and d, are as listed in table I. [N S R] is process is considered as a time-varying grey process in
a rotational matrix and P is a position vector of the end a certain range. In spite of using statistical regulation,
effector of this manipulator with respect to the base the grey theory employs the method of data generating
coordinate system. to obtain a more regular generating sequence from the
The procedure for solving this inverse kinematic equa- initial random data. The grey prediction is hence to
tion is first to solve for 0 1 from the transformation establish a grey model extending from the past informa-
matrix of [T s], multiplied by All as tion to the future, based upon the past and present
N,C I+N.,SI S,C+S"SI R,C 1 +RI'SI P,C I+PI'5\ known or undetermined information. Then, the grey
model can be used to predict the future variation in
N, S, R_ -dl+P, the system. The specific feature of establishing a grey
-N.,Cly+N,SI -S)"C I+S,SI -R/:I+R,SI -PyC I+P,SI model is the use of discrete time sequence data to
build up an ordinary differential equation.
0 0 0 During the operation of this method, accumulated
C2J4 0 52J4 II generating operation (ATO) and inverse accumulated
generating operation (IA TO) are the basic tools for
5234 0 -C234 12 searching the grey model. The orders of ATO and
, (2)
0 0 d2+d 3 lATa operations depend on the order of the differential
equation of the grey model and the number of grey
0 0 0 variables. The general form of a grey model is
 344 Si-J. Huang and Ri-J, Lian
GM(II,!I), where II is the order of the ordinary differen-
tial equation of the grey model and II is the number of
grey variables. The computing time of generating opera-
tion increases exponentially with respect to the equation
order II and variable numbers II. In addition, better pre-
diction accuracy is also not assured by using large nand
II values. Hence, the GM(I, I) model is extensively
employed in numbers of grey systems for prediction
application.
If {/O) (k)}, /O)(k) ~ 0, k = 0, I, ... , N is a time
sequence data, then the accumulated generating opera-
tion is
k where
),(i)(k) = L:>(O)(i),
;=0
where y(I)(k) is an accumulated generating sequence
data and is monotonically increasing. Since /O)(k) is
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not always a positive sequence, exponential or linear
mapping should be employed to change its behaviour
before proeeeding to the next generating operation.
The operation of IATO for /I)(k) is
/)(0) = /1)(0),
y(O)(k) = /I)(k) - yil)(k - I).
This means that /O)(k) is the inverse accumulated
generating sequence of y(I)(k). The trend of this gener-
ating time sequence can be approximated by an expo-
nential function, whose dynamic behaviour is similar to
that of a first-order differential equation. Hence, the
first-order ordinary differential grey model GM(I, I)
(Dcng 1988a, b) needs to be established as
dy(l)
- - + cy(l) = u
dr '
where the parameters c and u can be estimated by using
the least-squares scheme based upon the accumulated
generating data sequence y(l)(k), which is accumulated
from the past and present output information. If the
sampling interval is one unit, then the differential of
the generating sequence /1) can be described as a dis-
crete time sequence:
dl'(l)
dt = y(I)(k + I) - y(l)(k) = y(O)(k + I).
The second term of the first-order grey model can be
considered to represent the average of y(l)(k + I) and
y(l)(k). Then, the first-order differential equation can
be descri bed as
y(O)(k+ I)=c{-!~,(I)(k+ I)+y(l)(k)]}+u(k+ I)
where the values of parameters c and u(k + I) can be
estimated from the time sequence data /O)(k) and the
generating data sequence y(l)(k). In order to obtain an
approximate growing curve for y(l)(k), four or five sets
of data are required to extract the tendency of this grey
model. Hence this identification problem becomes a con-
tradict solution, owing to the extra sets of equations
required. The least-squares technique can then be
employed to find the optimal average solution between
them. The corresponding matrix form equation can be
descri bed as
( 10)
(5)
YN = [/)(1) y(0)(2) /0) (N)(,
-!(y(l)(O) + y(l)(I
+ /1)(2
-!(y(l)(I) (II)
B=
where N is the number of data sets used to estimate the
(6)
grey parameters.
Then the prediction output can be calculated by sub-
stituting the estimated parameters into the differential
equation. The digital form of this equation can be
given as
y(l)(k) = (/1)(0) - ~)e-Ck +~. (12)
Since /1)(0) is defined as /)(0), hence equation (12)
can be rewri tten as
(7)
Therefore, the prediction output as the (k + I )th step
can be estimated by taking derivative of the above equa-
tion as
or
(8) Since the grey model prediction is a local curve fitting
extrapolation scheme, at least four data sets are required
for the first-order single-variable grey prediction model
to offer a fairly accurate grey prediction (Deng
1988a, b). According to the literature (Deng 1988a, b)
and our experimental experience, five data sets can yield
a more accurate prediction value than other choices.
However, the prediction accuracy is not proportional
(9)
to the number of data sets, while the corresponding
computing time increases exponentially. Therefore, in
this study, the most recent five output data, namely
 Fuzzy controller for robot motion control 345

y(k - 4), y(k - 3), y(k - 2), y(k - I) and y(k), are accu-
mulated to predict the next step output Y(k + I) by
using a grey model. These data sets are substituted
into equations (10) and (II) for solving the grey para-
meters c and II recursively. This principle is similar to
that of the forgetting factor parameter of identification
algorithm. Then the system next-step output can be pre-
dicted by substituting the grey parameters into equa-
tions (13)-(15). This predicted output of the next step
is employed to calculate the predicted next-step position
error and error change in the look-ahead fuzzy control
strategy.
4. Fuzzy logic control
The control performance of a traditional controller fully
depends on the accuracy of the known dynamic model
of the system. However, since the complex systems with
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engine to digest these rules. These rules offer a transfor-
mation between the linguistic control knowledge of an
expert and the automatic control strategies of an acti-
vator. Every fuzzy control rule consists of an antecedent
and a consequent; a general form of the rules can be
expressed as
s; IF X is A and Y is B, THEN U is C, (16)
where R, is the ith rule, X and Yare the states of the
system output to be controlled and U is the control
input. A, Band C are the corresponding fuzzy subsets
of the input and output universe of discource.
The importance of the output of each rule depends on
the membership functions of the linguistic input and
output variables. The membership functions corre-
sponding to the position error, velocity error and the
control voltage can be divided into unequal spans, in
congruence with the system characteristics. The range

several variables are difficult to model appropriately for
their dynamic characteristics, a model-free intelligent
controller is hence introduced here to solve this kind
of problem by using the fuzzy set theory. The main
feature of fuzzy logic controller is to choose appropriate
linguistic fuzzy rules from a rules table established from
human control experience and database, by using deci-
sion-making process. These fuzzy rules are then trans-
formed into a control type of human thinking according
to fuzzy logic and fuzzy set operation. The fuzzy set
theory was first proposed by Zadeh (1965), and sub-
sequently there has been a large number of control
applications based on this theory (Maiers and Sherif
1985, Lee 1990). In most of these applications, the
main design objective is to construct a fuzzy system to
approximate the desired control action. The fuzzy set
theory has also employed as an alternative to traditional
modelling and control designs for providing a suitable
representation of the system (Driankov et al. 1993).
Fuzzy logic control applies the fuzzy set theory to
simulate the logical reasoning of human beings. The
major parts of the fuzzy controller are a set of linguistic
control rules, composed of fuzzy rules, and an inference
of the fuzzy variables can also be adjusted according
to variations in the system. According to the character-
istics of the system dynamics, the appropriate fuzzy rules
can be established and adjusted by using a prescriptive
algorithm to maintain the system step response within a
band (Mamdani and Baaklini 1975). In addition, the
fuzzy rules and scaling factors can be planned and
adjusted on the basis of the fuzzy phase plane analysis
by incorporating the closed-loop system output error in
the domain of fuzzy logic control rules (Braae and
Rutherford 1979). In the present study, 49 fuzzy rules
are employed to control the robotic motion, as listed in
table 2. The input variables of the fuzzy controller are
the predictive position error and error change of each
joint angle for the next step.
The membership function used in this study for the
fuzzification is of triangular type, which can be
expressed as
I
J.L(x) = W(-Ix -.BI + W), ( 17)
where W is the span of distrbution of the membership
function and f3 is the parameter corresponding to value

Table 2. Tbe fuzzy control rules of this fuzzy controller

E,
ec, NB NM NS ZE PS PM PB
NB NB NM NM NM NS NS ZE
NM NM NM NM NS NS ZE PS
NS NM NM NS NS ZE PS PS
ZE NS NS NS ZE PS PS PM
PS NS NS ZE PS PS PM PM
PM NS ZE PS PS PM PM PM
PB ZE PS PS PM PM PM PB
 346 S.-J. Huang and R.-J. Lian

I of the membership function. The height method is

(a)
employed to dcfuzzify the fuzzy variables in order to
c,(k)
obtain the control input voltage. The equation can be
described as B..(k) B,(k)

= LW;Y;/LW;, W; = II IL cc;(k)
yO Aij
(xJ), (18)
i i J

where II',I/,J) is the linguistic value of the fuzzy set

variable, W; is the weight of the corresponding activated
rule, Y; is the resulting fuzzy control value of the ith
fuzzy rule and l is the net fuzzy control action.
(b)

8,,(k+ I)
Fuzzy
+ 8,(k)

5. Experimental results ec,(k+ 1)

Since robotic manipulator exhibits obvious nonlinear
behaviours. such as friction, backlash, Coriolis coupling
and gravity force, the application of a traditional pro- "CO)
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8, (k+ I)
portionul-plus-intcgra I-pi us-differential controller needs
intricate gain adjustment for each motion situation. Figure 2. Block diagram of fuzzy control strategy: (a) a tradi-
Hence fuzzy logic control is here employed to improve tional fuzzy controller; (b) the fuzzy controller with grey
thc system robustness and facilitation. However, the prediction.
fuzzy logic control still needs considerable efforts to
find the appropriate membership functions and fuzzy
ei(k + I) = (}d;(k + I) - tW)(k + I),
rules for quick motion control of robot. Hence, the
grey predictive theory is utilized in this study to predict for i = 1,2,3,4, (22)
the system next-step output response for pre-correction
ec;(k + I) = e;(k + I) - e;(k),
by using a look-ahead fuzzy control. This strategy is
expected to improve the robustness of the fuzzy con- for i = 1,2,3,4. (23)
troller and to reduce the difficulty in implementing the
fuzzy controller. Here fj~O) (k + I) is the predicted next-step angular
In this study, both a traditional fuzzy controller and a output response of the robotic system, estimated from
fuzzy controller with grey prediction were implemented the grey prediction algorithm described in the previous
individually to a four-DOF robot. The block diagram of section. The actual control input voltage of the actua-
this fuzzy control strategy is presented in figure 2(a). The tors for this fuzzy control with grey prediction system
angular error and error rate at each joint are employed are
as the inputs, and the increment .6.u;(k) of control law is
considered as output for the traditional fuzzy controller:
V;(k) = V;(k - I) + .6.V;(k), for i = 1,2,3,4. (24)

e;(k)=Od;(k)-O;(k), fori=I,2,3,4, (19) In order to demonstrate the performance of the pro-

ec;(k) = e;(k) - ei(k - I), for i = 1,2,3,4,
where e;(k) and ec;(k) are the angular error and error
change at the ith joint of the robotic control system. The
actual control input voltages of the actuators for this
traditional fuzzy control system are
posed fuzzy controller with grey prediction, experi-
(20) mental results obtained from this controller are
compared with those obtained from the traditional
fuzzy controller. The membership functions of angular
error, error change and control voltage used here are
given in figure 3, where ,1
is the scale factor, the sub-

1I;(k) =u;(k-I)+.6.u;(k), for i= 1,2,3,4, (21)

where .6.u;(k) indicates the voltage increment at the ith
joint, i = 1,2,3,4, of this robotic system in the k-step
sampling interval. u;(k) and u;(k - I) are the system
control input voltages at the ith joint of this robotic
system in the kth- and (k - I )th-stcp sampling intervals
respectively.
The block diagram of the fuzzy control with grey Figure 3. The membership functions of the conventional fuzz}'
prediction strategy is shown in figure 2(b), where controller.
 Fuzzy controller for robot motion control 347

O,OO'r------------------, OO~r------ __,

(c)

Figure 4. The joint-space trajec-

tory tracking errors for a
circle path in working space
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using a traditional fuzzy con-

-0.016.'---- -:-- --::-- --:-- - - - :-- - - --.J
0 troller: (a) joint 1; (b) joint 2;
rim. (ue} (c) joint 3; (4) joint 4.

I
! -0.01

-0, 0 30L-- -,-- --:-- ___,_- - - - : -- -:-- ___!.

(b)

Figure 5. The joint-space trajec-

tory errors for a circle path
in working space by using the
-0,02
-,
fuzzy controller with grey pre-
-O~OL------:--___,_----:---:--___!. -IOO:---:---:----:-----------.J diction: (a) joint 1; (b) joint 2;
Tim. ( ,,) Tim. tHe) (c) joint 3; (d) joint 4.

script i = 1,2,3,4 devotes the joint number where the clear distinction, the joints trajectory tracking errors
superscript) = 1,2,3 is used to devote the angular error, calculated by using the traditional fuzzy controller for
error change and control output. The parameters of the
membership functions used in this study are listed in Table 3. The scalar factors of this fuzzy controller
table 3. The sampling frequency used was 200 Hz. The
desired tracking trajectory was a circle in the X - Y plane
,I = 0.200 ,1 = 0.160 ,1 = 0.095
of radius 12em. The corresponding reference joints tra- ,1 = 0.150 ,~ = 0.065 ,? = 0.020
jectories of this robotic system were calculated from the ,j = 0.190 ,S = 0.120 ,5 = 0.222
inverse kinematics equations. Since the joint response
trajectory was too close to the reference trajectory for
,1 = 0.100 ,J = 0.001 ,J = 0.010
 348 S.-f. Huang and Ri-J, Lian

, .e
(a)

,"..
,.

~I
-00

-, , 'I'~ Time (He)

-I.ti
,
Thn~ (Iecl

L' (b)

Figure 6. The joint-space control

voltage histories of a tradi-
tional fuzzy controller: (a)
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-O.3 :-- C-- -,-- -,-- - - ....,-- -,-- ---.J joint \; (b) joint 2; (c) joint 3;
0

Tlml (..cl
(d) joint 4.

,.,r-----------------,
(e)

-1.5
,
Tim. , ....) Tlme(""')

O,U

(d)

0.05

I
-0.0$
Figure 7. The joint-space control
0
voltage histories of the fuzzy
controller with grey predic-
-., -0.1$
, tion: (a) joint I:, (b) joint 2',
Tlmlt..C) Time I ...,) (C) joint 3; (d) joint 4.

a circular path tracking are shown in figure 4. For the
fuzzy controller with grey prediction strategy, the joints
trajectory tracking errors for circular path tracking of
robot motion control are shown in figure 5. From the
error responses in figures 4 and 5, it can be observed that
the maximum amplitude of the angular tracking error of
the first joint is reduced from 0.062 to 0.028, that of
the second joint is reduced from 0.039 to 0.025, that of
the third joint is reduced from 0.043 to 0.023 and the
error of the fourth joint is reduced from 0.011 to 0.005.
Obviously, the trajectory tracking error has been signifi-
cantly reduced by introducing the grey prediction
strategy into the fuzzy controller for robot motion con-
trol. The control voltage history at each joint of the
traditional fuzzy controller is presented in figure 6,
and that of the proposed fuzzy controller with grey pre-
diction in figure 7 for comparison. It can also be
observed that the control voltage of fuzzy controller
with grey prediction is smoother than that of the tradi-
tional fuzzy controller alone.
 Fuzzy controller for robot motion control 349
0 . . - - - - - _ -_ _- _ - - _ - - - - - , _ - - _ - - - - , 0.3,--------------------:-:-1
(a)

-0.6 -0.3
0 7 0 7

Time (sec) Time (Iec)

0.25

0.2
(b)
0.15

0.1
e- e-
Downloaded by [University of Otago] at 01:57 08 January 2015

E. E.
~
~
.,
~

. ...,
.; -0.05

-0.1

-0.2

-0.5 -0.25
0 3 7 0 7

Time (ICC) nme (sec)

e- e-
E. E.
~ ~
i,
,
;i
N N

-0.3 o::--~~-----;~----::----:----:----:----:

Time (Iec) Time (Me)

Figure 8. Trajectory tracking errors for a circle path in work- Figure 9. The trajectory tracking errors for a circle path in
ing space using a traditional fuzzy controller: (a) X axis; working space using the fuzzy controller with grey predic-
(b) Y axis; (c) Z axis. tion: (a) X axis; (b) Y axis; (c) Z axis.

The position error histories in the X, Y and Z direc-
tions for circular path tracking by using a traditional
fuzzy control alone and the fuzzy controller with grey
prediction proposed in this study are shown in figure 8
and figure 9 respectively for comparison. It can be noted
that the maximum position tracking errors in the work
space are reduced from 0.6mm to 0.26mm along the X
axis, from 0.47 mm to 0.23 mm along the Y axis and
from 0.48 mm to 0.28 mm along the Z axis. Hence, the
angular as well as the position tracking errors have been
reduced considerably by introducing the grey prediction
algorithm into the traditonal fuzzy controller for con-
trolling the robotic system. The maximum angular
errors, position errors and rms errors in both systems,
that is fuzzy controller with or without grey prediction
are listed in table 4 in order to evaluate and compare
their control performance. It can be clearly seen that
introduction of grey prediction in the fuzzy controller
significantly improves its tracking control performance
under the same fuzzy parameters and fuzzy rules.
 350 S.-J. Huang and R.-J. Lian

Table 4. Tbe angular errors, position errors, and both rms values for a circle path tracking
by using a fuzzy controller only a a fuzzy controller with grey prediction

Maximum joint-space trajectory tracking errors and rms errors

Fuzzy controller Fuzzy controller with grey prediction

Maximum error Rms error Maximum error Rms error

Joint (deg) (deg) (deg) (deg)

I 0.062 0.018 0.028 0.009

2 0.039 0.020 0.025 0.006
3 0.043 0.013 0.023 0.007
4 0.011 0.003 0.005 0.002

Maximum position tracking errors and rms error

Fuzzy controller Fuzzy controller with grey prediction

Maximum error Rms error Maximum error Rms error

Axis (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm)
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X 0.60 0.13 0.26 0.09

l' 0.47 0.16 0.23 0.05
Z 0.48 0.23 0.28 0.08

prediction are shown in figure 10 for comparison. It can

,
be seen that the fuzzy controller with grey prediction
strategy enhances the robustness of the control system
by using the grey prediction output to pre-compensate
the next-step system output error. This feature can also
effectively reduce the efforts in finding the appropriate
'0 . Q . 5 r - - - I - - - I - - - - j - - - membership functions and fuzzy rules during the opera-
,l; -lr-----1 ---+--1-_1--
I I
tion. Hence, the fuzzy controller with grey prediction
algorithm not only refines the trajectory tracking accu-
1.5 f - - - - - i - - - - - - 1 ' - - - - - - fouy control racy but also facilitates the implementation of fuzzy
------- fuay+grey eoatrcl controller in robotic systems.
1.5 2Il
1lmc(occ)

Figurc 10. The X-axis path tracking errors of a fuzzy control-
ler with and without grey prediction under inappropriate
fuzzy control rules.
In order to evaluate the robustness and applicability
of the proposed fuzzy controller with grey prediction, a
fuzzy controller with roughly adjusted fuzzy parameters
and fuzzy rules was employed to control the manipu-
lator for trajectory tracking. Under these inappropriate
fuzzy parameters and fuzzy rules, the position error of
the fuzzy controller was large, that is the system showed
significant deviations from the desired trajectory and
even went out of control. However, the introduction
of grey prediction, for the same fuzzy control rules
and parameters, obviously improved the system control
performance. The X-axis position errors for a circular
path trajectory tracking control by using a rough fuzzy
controller alone and a rough fuzzy controller with grey
6. Conclusion
A four-DOF robot with ac servo actuators was designed
to evaluate the control performance of the fuzzy control
with grey prediction strategy. The grey prediction theory
is incorporated into a fuzzy controller in this study to
obtain a look-ahead fuzzy logic control algorithm. The
predicted angular error and error change are employed
as the fuzzy input variables instead of the current
angular error and error changes for generating the
fuzzy rules. This proposed fuzzy controller with grey
prediction significantly improves the robustness of the
traditional fuzzy controller and reduces the tracking
error as well as oscillation amplitude of the tracking
error history. The experimental results on robot
motion control by this approach clearly showed the
feasibility of such a fuzzy controller with grey prediction
algorithm. The trajectory tracking error of the robotic
motion control reduces considerably at each joint, and
 Fuzzy controller for robot motion control
this approach also effectively reduced the difficulty in
finding appropriate membership functions and fuzzy
rules during the implementation of this controller.
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