A CMAC-PD compound torque controller with fast learning capacity and improved output smoothness for electric load simulator

The compound architecture of CMAC (Cerebellar Model Articulation Controller) and PD (Proportional-Derivative) can effectively reduce the loading error and restrain the surplus torque of electric load simulators. But due to its generalization ability, the CMAC controller has an unsmooth output, which leads to the motor vibration even the divergence of control system. The unsmooth problem of CMAC is analyzed in this paper and a novel scalar cost function of CMAC is proposed, which consists of an error item and a weight smoothing item to guarantee fast learning capacity and improved output smoothness of CMAC. With the novel scalar cost function, a compound torque controller of PD and smooth CMAC is derived by using the gradient descent algorithm. Both the simulation and experimental results demonstrate that the novel CMAC-PD compound controller can effectively improve the output smoothness of the electric load simulator, eliminate the surplus torque and assure the stability of system as well.