Chapter 3 - Vibration suppression of force controllers using disturbance observers

Abstract

Vibration is an inherent disturbance phenomenon, which has to be mitigated in order to achieve better control performance in dc motor-based force-controlling applications. Disturbance observers (DoB) are extensively used in control systems to nullify the effects of these uncertain disturbances. Reaction torque observer (RTOB) is a variant of DoB that has superior characteristics over traditional force sensors. This chapter presents a novel method of suppressing vibrations present in force controllers using DOB and RTOB. The methodology is validated using simulation and experimental results.