Intelligent evolutionary controller for flexible robotic arm

Abstract

Robotic is one of the key technologies towards Industrial Revolution 4.0. Robotic system, especially robotic arm have received tremendous demand in various fields especially manufacturing industry. Robotic arm is highly needed to enhance production, improve output, reduce human error and the most importantly, earn more profit with fast return on investment. The current industrial robotic arm, not only they are very expensive and required specialist for maintenance, they are also very heavy and difficult to manoeuvre. These facts are the reason why robotic solution are still unaffordable in most small and medium manufacturing industries in developing countries. Despite all the drawbacks, there is still a pressing need to employ robotics solution with the inherent problems of worker-related issues and output quality. Today, work requires a nimble and versatile robot and yet remain reliable. Operating robots should be simpler, where the learning curve is less steep. The user interface should be friendly and intuitive. Recently, there is a growing interest in employing lightweight, stronger and more flexible robotic arm in various fields. However, lightweight robot arm can be more easily influenced by unwanted vibrations, which may lead to problems including fatigue, instability and performance reduction. These problems may eventually cause damage to the highly stressed structures. This research focused on the development of the intelligent evolutionary controller algorithms for controlling flexible robotic arm manipulator. The controller algorithm has been formulated for trajectory planning control and vibration cancelation utilizing intelligent evolutionary algorithms such as Particle Swarm Algorithm and Artificial Bees Colony. The developed evolutionary algorithms have been implemented and experimentally verified using robotic arm manipulator experimental rig. The performances of these intelligent evolutionary controllers were found to be far better than the conventional method in term of input tracking, trajectory control and vibration cancelation.