Decomposition-based control of mechanical systems

The paper presents a decomposition-based control design framework for mechanical systems with model uncertainties. The fundamental strategy of the proposed decomposition-based system modeling and control approach is to distinguish between uncertain parameters and variables of different physical types, and to design a separate compensator for each of them, while taking into account each specific physical feature. This approach advocates treating each type of model uncertainty with the most suitable and efficient means, including PID, robust, adaptive methods. The overall controller is generated by synergetic integration of these compensators. The procedure of the decomposition-based control design is described in this paper and is illustrated with an example of a two degrees of freedom robot arm, with parametric and nonparametric model uncertainties.