Disturbance observer and feedforward design for a 2-DOF high-speed/high-accuracy robotic system

In this paper, a novel 2-DOF high-speed/high-accuracy robotic system is proposed, which consists of two permanent linear DC servomotors and a planar parallel mechanism. Analysis of robotic dynamical model verifies that load variation is violent. Due to the direct-drive principle of a linear motor, the load disturbance can have a significant effect on position accuracy. For this purpose, a discrete-time disturbance observer, feedback controller and ZPECT feedforward controller is presented. The disturbance observer, which is applied to the plant velocity loop, provides robustness for design of both the feedback controller and the feedforward controller. The feedback controller is intended to make the command following properties fast, and the feedforward term realized as a Zero Phase Error Tracking Controller improves tracking. In the experiment, robotic max acceleration is equal to 20m/s ², max velocity is more than 1 m/s ², and resolution is 0.5 μm. While the tracking errors are less than 50 μm, the steady-state errors are less than 1 μm, and steady time is less then 42 ms. Experiment results show that: high-performance motion system can be obtained with this discrete-time controller, even in large load variance motion system.