Iterative Learning Control Algorithm with a Fixed Step

Abstract

Iterative Learning Control (ILC) captures interests of many scholars because of its capability of high precision control implement without identifying plant mathematical models, and it is widely applied in control engineering. Presently, most ILC algorithms still follow the original ideas of ARIMOTO, in which the iterative-learning-rate is composed by the control error with its derivative and integral values. This kind of algorithms will result in inevitable problems such as huge computation, big storage capacity for algorithm data, and also weak robust. In order to resolve these problems, an improved iterative learning control algorithm with fixed step is proposed here which breaks the primary thought of ARIMOTO. In this algorithm, the control step is set only according to the value of the control error, which could enormously reduce the computation and storage size demanded, also improve the robust of the algorithm by not using the differential coefficient of the iterative learning error. In this paper, the convergence conditions of this proposed fixed step iterative learning algorithm is theoretically analyzed and testified. Then the algorithm is tested through simulation researches on a time-variant object with randomly set disturbance through calculation of step threshold value, algorithm robustness testing,and evaluation of the relation between convergence speed and step size. Finally the algorithm is validated on a valve-serving-cylinder system of a joint robot with time-variant parameters. Experiment results demonstrate the stability of the algorithm and also the relationship between step value and convergence rate. Both simulation and experiment testify the feasibility and validity of the new algorithm proposed here. And it is worth to noticing that this algorithm is simple but with strong robust after improvements, which provides new ideas to the research of iterative learning control algorithms.