<title>Modeling and motion control of inchworm considering nonlinearities</title>

Abstract

This paper proposes a new modeling scheme to describe the hysteresis and the preload characteristics of piezoelectric stack actuators in the inchworm. From the analysis of piezoelectric stack actuator behavior, the hysteresis can be described by the functions of a maximum input voltage and the preload characteristics are identified by the preload weight. The dynamic characteristics are also identified by the frequency domain modeling technique based on the experimental data. For the motion control, the hysteresis is compensated by the inverse hysteresis model. Since the dynamic stiffness of an inchworm is generally low compared to its driving condition, the mechanical vibration may degrade accuracy of the inchworm. Therefore, the SMC (Sliding Mode Control) and the Kalman filter are developed for the precision motion control of the inchworm. The feasibility of the proposed modeling scheme and the control algorithm is tested and verified experimentally.