Whale optimizer algorithm to tune PID controller for the trajectory tracking control of robot manipulator

Abstract

In this work, we are interested to the PID control of nonlinear systems and more specially the control of a robot manipulator. The idea is to determine the optimal parameters ($$K_{p}, K_{i}$$ and $$K_{d}$$) of the controller using a novel algorithm of optimization called whale optimizer algorithm (WOA). To study the effectiveness of WOA-PID controller, its performance is compared with other controllers such as particle swarm optimization-PID (PSO-PID) and grey wolf optimizer-PID (GWO-PID). The model of robot manipulator and all controllers were tested using Simulink/MATLAB. Simulation results obtained clearly indicate the superiority of WOA-PID controller over the other controllers for trajectory tracking, better settling time, and ITAE errors.