1

Design of Fuzzy Controller for a Robot arm: A systematic Approach

R(n) = Kr r(n) = Kr (e(n)-e(n-1))

Abstract-- Most fuzzy controllers have been treated and used
as black-box controllers in the sense that their analytical
structures are unknown. Knowing the explicit structure
information will enable one to insightfully understand how a
fuzzy control works. In the present paper a novel technique is
presented for deriving input out put relations for the fuzzy
controller that uses Zadeh AND operator for symmetrical
triangular input fuzzy sets. The robotic arm control with and
without the gravitational effect is simulated to know the
efficacy of the fuzzy controller using symmetrical input
membership functions.
Index Terms-- Fuzzy controller, triangular fuzzy sets, robot arm,
gravitational torque.
I. INTRODUCTION
Fuzzy controllers are constructed generally via heuristic
approaches as opposed to the mathematical approaches
exclusively used in conventional control. The fuzzy
controllers have been treated and used as black box
controllers. With out analytical structure information, precise
and effective mathematical analysis and design are very
difficult to achieve. Availability of the structure information
may lead to less trail and error effort and produce better
control performance.
Where Ke and Kr are scaling factors and
SP (n) is output command signal. E (n) and R (n) are
fuzzified by triangular fuzzy sets. The membership functions
for E (n) and
R (n) are noted by µE i, µE i+1, µR j and µR j+1 respectively.
The rules are:
Rule 1: IF E (n) is Ei+1 AND R (n) is RJ+1 THEN u (n) is H1
Rule 2: IF E (n) is Ei+1 AND R (n) is Rj THEN u (n) is H2
Rule 3: IF E (n) is Ei AND R (n) is Rj+1 THEN u (n) is H3
Rule 4: IF E (n) is Ei AND R (n) is Rj THEN
u (n) is H4
Zadeh fuzzy logic AND operator is used to realize the AND
operations in the rules.
The popular centroid defuzzifier is employed which yields
μ1h1 + μ 2 h 2 + μ 3 h 3 + μ 4 h 4
U(n) = K u .u(n) = K u
μ1 + μ 2 + μ 3 + μ 4
Where K u is the scaling factor and
U (n) is the output of fuzzy controller.

III. ANALYTICAL STRUCTURE FOR TRIANGULAR

In literature analytical structures are derived mainly for MEMBERSHIP FUNCTIONS:
fuzzy controllers using Zadeh AND operator [1]-[5].
Revealing the analytical structure of a fuzzy controller that
uses Zadeh AND operator is far more difficult even for Mathematical definitions of the fuzzy sets are
triangular input fuzzy sets, which are simplest fuzzy sets
because this operator requires the comparison of membership
functions. 0 , (− , ∞− 1 5 ]

Recently that is extended to derive the relationship  E ( +n 1) 5
between input space divisions needed due to the use of Zadeh μE i + 1 =  , [− 1 51 , 5 ]
AND operator and input fuzzy sets [6][7].
 30
In this paper an analytical structure for symmetrical  1 , [ 1 ∞5 ] ,
class of input fuzzy sets is developed. The robotic arm
control is simulated to know the efficacy of the fuzzy
controller. 0 , (− , ∞− 1 2 ]

II. DEVELOPMENT OF A GENERAL TECHNIQUE  R ( +n1 ) 2
μ = , [− 1 21 , 2 ]
A Mamdani type fuzzy controller, which employs two input
variables, is taken. The two input variables are e (n) and r
R j+ 1
 24
(n) and system output is y (n). The scaled error and change of  1 [ 1 ∞2] ,
error of y (n) are
Over all input space divisions of all the four rules due to
E(n) = Ke e(n) = Ke (SP(n)-y(n)) Zedah AND operator are shown in Fig. 1.

B. Krishna Madhuri is M.E 2nd year student (Control systems Engineering) in



the department of Electrical Engineering, A U College of Engineering

(A),Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh-530003 India (e-mail:
krishnamadhuri_eee@yahoo.com)
 2

Fig. 3 Step response without disturbance

Fig. 1. Over all input space division for all the four rules
For each region a unique analytical in equality relationship
can be obtained for each fuzzy rule between two membership
functions being ANDed.
A. Effect of gravitational torque:
Introducing the gravity torque Tgr = 21 sinθ for the system
considered in fig.4., there are two cases to be analyzed.

IC Rule1 Rule2 Rule3 Rule4

1. μE i+1 μE i+1 μ R j+1 μRj

2. μE i+1 μRj μE i μRj

3. μ R j+1 μRj μE i μE i
4. μ R j+1 μE i+1 μ R j+1 μE i

Table I: Rule Firing Fig. 4 Response with disturbance

Analytical structure of the fuzzy controller is obtained by
putting these results into the defuzzifier, and it is tabulated in
Table II
IV. CASE STUDY
A system representing the complete modal for Robot arm
control is shown in Fig. 2. with fuzzy PD controller. The
disturbance Tgr is due to gravity. Simulated results are shown
in Fig. 3 to Fig. 5.
B. Performance Analysis:
From the graphs it can be observed that the rise time and
settling time for the fuzzy controller using symmetrical input
fuzzy sets are less compared to rise time and settling time for
the conventional controller. I.e. fuzzy controller gives the
fast response.
C. When arm is moving down:
The effectiveness of controller when the arm is moving
down is shown in Fig. 5. It is observed that fuzzy controller
response compared to conventional controller is better in this
case also.

IC.No U (n)=
1. h1 + h 2 h3 h4
−0.4E(n)
+ −0.3R(n)
+
K U 1+ e 1+ e 1+ e 0.3R(n)
2 1 1
−0.4E(n)
+ −0.3R(n)
+
Fig. 2 Block diagram for the control of robot arm using fuzzy controller 1+ e 1+ e 1+ e 0.3R(n)
2. h1 h2 + h4 h3
+ +
KU 1 + e −0.4E(n) 1 + e 0.3R(n) 1 + e 0.4R(n)
1 2 1
+ +
1 + e −0.4E(n) 1 + e 0.3R(n) 1 + e 0.4R(n)
3 h1 h2 h3 + h 4
+ +
KU 1+ e −0.3E(n) 1+ e 0.3R(n) 1+ e 0.4R(n)
Table II Analytical Structure 1 1 2
+ +
1+ e −0.3E(n) 1+ e 0.3R(n) 1+ e 0.4R(n)
4 h1 + h 3 h2 h4
+ +
KU 1+ e −0.3E(n) 1+ e −0.4R(n) 1+ e 0.4R(n)
2 1 1
+ +
1+ e −0.3E(n) 1+ e −0.4R(n) 1+ e 0.4R(n)
 3

integral-derivative controller,” IEEE Trans. Syst., vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 449-463,

Fig. 5. Response when arm is moving down
V. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper analytical structure of fuzzy controller using
symmetric triangular fuzzy sets is developed. And it is
applied
to control the robotic arm. Results are compared with the
conventional controller. Finally from the simulated results it
can be concluded that the system using fuzzy controller is
fast
Nov. 1998.
[4] G.K. Mann, B.G. Hu, and R. G. Gosine, “Analysis of direct action fuzzy
PID controller structures” IEEE Trans. Syst., Man, Cybern, B. Cybern., vol.
29, pp.371-388, 1999.
[5] Hao Ying, “ A General Technique for Deriving Analytical Structure of
Fuzzy Controllers Using Arbitrary Trapezoidal Input Fuzzy Sets and Zadeh
AND Operator”. Automatica, Vol .39, pp. 1171-1184, 2003.
[6] K.A. Gopala Rao, K.R.Sudha, “Analytical Structure of Three Input
Fuzzy PID Power System Stabilizer with Decoupled Rules”, WSEAS Trans.
on CIRCUITS and SYSTEMS, pp.965-970, June 2004.
[7] K.A. Gopala Rao, K.R.Sudha, “Analytical Structure of PID Fuzzy
Logic Power System Stabilizer” Proceedings of IASTED Modeling,
simulation, and Optimization MSO2004 August 2004
VII. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I thank my guide Dr. K.A. Gopala Rao, Professor and Head,
Department of Electrical Engineering for introducing me to
this area of research.

responding irrespective of the presence of disturbance

torques.

VI. REFERENCES
[1] H. Ying, W. Siler, and J.J. Buckley,”Fuzzy control theory: A Non-linear
case,” Automatica, vol.26, pp.513-520, 1990.
[2] A. E. Hajjaji and A. Rachid, “Explicit formulas for fuzzy controller,”
Fuzzy Sets Syst., vol. 62, pp. 135-141, 1994.
[3] W. Li, ”Design of a hybrid fuzzy logic proportional plus conventional