Applied Mechanics and Materials Vol.

163 (2012) pp 23-28 Online: 2012-04-12

© (2012) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland
doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.163.23

Cascade Controller Design for Compliant Actuators

Tao Qiaoa, Shusheng Bi
Robotics Institute, Beihang University, Beijing, China,100191
a
qiaotao21@yahoo.com.cn

Keywords: Compliant Actuator, Cascade control, Mechanical impedance, Collision force

Abstract. Compliant actuators are widely used in industrial robots due to the fact that the compliant
elements have the capacity to absorb excessive collision force and guarantee the robot safety.
Moreover, the compliant elements can be also employed as force/torque sensors in the control loops.
Therefore, the research on the compliant actuators is of importance in the theory and application
sides. Specifically, it is required that the robot systems should have a low stiffness when the
subjected collision force is greater than the prescribed injury tolerance. But, in the normal status, the
systems maintain the required capability. In this paper, the system stiffness of a compliant actuator
is defined as a ‘mechanical impedance’ (the ratio between output force and output shaft angle). A
cascade controller is well designed by following the results on analyzing the characteristic of
compliant actuator impedance stability and collision. At the end, simulation results show the
effectiveness of the analytic results and designed controller.

Introduction
For traditional robot systems especially those used in industrial robot arms, high
impedance-position controlled actuators are widely used in order to get a high force/torque
bandwidth and trajectory tracking control fidelity. However, at the safety side, it is required that the
actuator systems should be with compliant elements. That is, there is a conflict between the
requirements on the bandwidth and on the safety. In order to accommodate these two requirements,
Pratt, Robinson and Williamson[1~6] proposed a concept called series elastic actuator (SEA). The
main idea is to use a compliant element in the flexible actuator system such that the collision energy
can be stored and the shocks can be absorbed. In other words, a system with a compliant element
leads to a low impedance which can force the controlled actuation to improve the system safety. In
the literature, we can see that this kind of actuators were widely used in walking robots[7],
prosthetic and orthotic leg systems[8], and force-sensing robot arms[9].
Compared with a stiff robot system, the manipulator stability of a compliant system cannot be
guaranteed when it contacts an unknown environment. Thus, the stability analysis of the impedance
is necessary. According to the Colgate and Hogan’s principle, Williamson[2] and Heike Vallery[10]
designed controllers to ensure the passivity and the stability of the actuators. But further research on
the system stability, mechanical impedance, collision power is necessary for a better performance.
For walking robots, such as prosthetic and orthotic leg systems and force-sensing robot arms,
these tasks run at a low speed but a high force density such that a transmission or a gear reduction is
required. Transmissions introduce the friction and backlash which are undesirable effects. The
backlash between every part of the actuation creates noise and instability. In order to conquer such
drawbacks, cascade scheme based on torque control in main loop and velocity control in the inner
loop is adopted. Gordon Wyeth[11] developed a new variant of SEA that minimizes the effect of
the system backlash, and overcomes the stiction effect. Heike Vallery[10] employed a cascade
scheme which can ensure passivity and while counteracting static errors. In his work, he
emphasized on the analysis of the parameters boundaries. Reza Ghorbani’s[12] cascade scheme
used saturation operators in the system to ensure minimize the saturation effects. The characteristics
of the system based on cascade control scheme need a further research, which motivate the work in
our paper.

All rights reserved. No part of contents of this paper may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of Trans
Tech Publications, www.ttp.net. (ID: 142.103.160.110, University of British Columbia, Kelowna, Canada-14/07/15,17:36:23)
24 History of Mechanical Technology and Mechanical Design 2012

System Model
In this section, the cascade control strategy with inner velocity loop will be described. The
compliant actuator consists of a DC motor coupled to the load via series elasticity. As shown in
Fig.1, the cascade control strategy has a torque control main loop and a velocity inner loop. The
velocity feedback from an encoder forms a velocity loop for controlling the motor and
compensating for the gearbox nonlinear and error. The PI compensator in the velocity loop is used
to remove the steady state error.
Motor Model.
The Eqs of motor dynamics are
1 d 2θ g dθ g
Tm − Tl = nJ m 2
+ nBm
n dt dt (1)
1
Tm = K i I a − Tl
n (2)
dθ m
Ria = V − K b (3)
dt
where θ m ， θ g and θl denote the motor angle, gearbox angle and load angle, respectively. J m is the
motor rotor moment of inertia. Bm is the viscous damping ratio. Tm is the motor torque. Tl is the load
torque. K s is the compliant element spring constant. n is the gearbox ratio. K i is the torque
constant. I a is armature current. K b is the back EMF constant.
In the Laplace domain, these Eqs can be rewritten as

RI a ( s ) = V ( s ) − K bωm ( s ) (4)

( J m s + Bm )ωm ( s ) = K i I a ( s ) − Tl ( s ) / n (5)

Compliant Element Model.

For SEA system with gearbox reduction, the deflection θ s of compliant element is a function of
the gearbox output angle θ g and load rotation angle θl

θ s = θ g − θl
(6)
The position of the load is determined by the output torque applied to the load Tl . The torque
applied to the load Tl is due to the compliant element deflection θ s .
1 1
θl = Tl 2
= K sθ s (7)
Jl s Jl s2

Tl = K s (θ g − θ l )
(8)
The open loop transfer function from gearbox position to SEA output torque by combining the
Eqs (6)~(8) can be rewritten as:
Tl Ks s2 (9)
=
θg K
s2 + s
Jl
SEA Controller Model.
The cascade control strategy including two PI compensators. The two integral compensators are
used in order to remove steady state error. Compared with Fig.1, Fig.2 shows the cascade control
details with the desired velocity and desired voltage
 Applied Mechanics and Materials Vol. 163 25

ωd = GPIo (Td − Tl ) (10)

Vd = GPIi (ωd − ωm ) (11)

The inner and outer controllers can be written as

Kii K
GPIi = K PIi + , GPIo = K PIo + io (12)
s s

The block diagram of the cascade controlled SEA is shown in Fig.2.

TDesired ωDesired ωm
ωl

ωg

Tl
Fig. 1 The cascade control strategy sketch map with a torque main control loop and a velocity
inner loop

1/ n

Td ωd Tm − 1 Tl
GPIo GPIi Ki / R 1/ n 1/ s Ks
− J m s + Bm −
− − θl
1
Kb Jl s2

Fig. 2 The cascade control strategy block diagram

Stability Analysis
The most important problem in linear control systems concerns stability. Compared with a stiff
actuator, besides the stability analysis of the cascade control system, the output impedance stability
of SEA should also be identified. We use two PI compensators but not two PID compensators in
order to simplify the cascade control model for getting an analytical stability boundary.
System stability.
The linear closed-loop system has closed-loop transfer function in the form:

Tl a10 s 2 + a11s + a12

= (13)
Td b10 s 4 + b11s 3 + b12 s 2 + b13 s + b14
K i K s K po K pi
Ki K s KK K K
where a10 = ( K po K ii + K pi Kio ) , a12 = i s ii io , b10 = J m ,
, a11 =
nR nR nR
KK K K K J 1 KK KK
b11 = Bm + i b + i pi , b12 = S m + 2 K s + i ii + K po K pi i s ,
R R Jl n R nR
K S Bm K i K b K S K i K S K pi K i K s KK K KK K K
b13 = + + + ( K po K ii + K pi K io ) , b14 = i S ii + i s ii io
Jl RJ l RJ l nR RJ l nR

The closed loop transfer function provides the characteristic polynomial equation. Calculating
the polynomial by Routh’s stability criterion, the stability of the system can be checked.
26 History of Mechanical Technology and Mechanical Design 2012

Impedance stability.
For an SEA, the impedance is defined as the ratio between output torque Tl and output shaft
angle θl . Output impedance is measure of the system stiffness for different load motion requirement.
For robot motion, low impedance is recommended. Not only the impedance is a measure whether a
robot system will be stable while in contact with an environment, but also the impedance is a
symbol of collision power. The impedance closed-loop transfer function as below

Tl a20 s 4 + a21s 3 (14)

Z (s) = =
θl b20 s + b21s 3 + b22 s 2 + b23 s + b24
4

K i K b K i K pi K KK K i K s K pi K po
where a20 = − K S J m , a21 = − K S Bm , b20 = J m , b21 = Bm + + , b22 = 2s + i ii +
R R n R nR
Ki K s KK K K
, b23 = ( K po K ii + K pi K io ) , b24 = i s ii io
nR nR
Colgate[13] and Hogan[14] proved that a system will be stable when contact with unknown
environment if the impedance Z ( s ) obeys two rules:
1, Z ( s ) has no poles in the right half plane ( Z ( s ) is stable);
2, The imaginary part of Z ( jω ) is negative for all frequencies ω .
The first rule can be identified by the Routh’s stability criterion. According to the second rule,

Im( Z ( jω )) = r (c7ω 7 + c5ω 5 + c3ω 3 + c1ω ) (15)

K S J m K i K b K S J m K i K pi
With r > 0 , c7 = −( + ),
R R
K B K K B KK K S Bm K i K s K pi K po K s J m K i K s K po K ii K s J m K i K s K pi K io
c5 = − s m2 s − s m i ii − + + ,
n R nR nR nR
K B KK K K
c3 = S m i s ii io , c1 = 0
nR
The imaginary part of Z ( jω ) can not be negative for all frequencies, especially for the low
frequency because of the influence of c3 . Williamson[2] deal with this by rolling off the integral
term at low frequencies leading to the analysis of control system much complicated. It is possible to
symbolic analyze the system characteristic during wide frequency range without considering this.
Stable Boundary simulation.
According to the stable rules of control system and output impedance, a possible boundary for
easy tuning of the controllers is

 RJ m K pi 
 pi J m   po J m 
K K  
 K ii RBm K io K b K io 
 > ∧ >  ∧ K po > max( K ( RB + K K + K K ) , + ) (16)
K
 ii B m  K
 io B m   RJ K K K 

pi m i b i pi
− m Ti1 i ii ii

 K ii K io K io 
Fig.3. shows the response of the actuator to a desired torque signals in period of 1 second. The
desired sinusoid torque signal is with amplitude 2Nm and frequency 50rad/s. The desired velocity
signal and response are also shown in Fig.4. As shown in the Fig.3 and Fig.4, the actuator can
successfully follow the desired torque signal and desired velocity signal.
 Applied Mechanics and Materials Vol. 163 27

2 500

1.5

1
Torque(Nm)

Speed(rad/s)
0.5

0 0

-0.5

-1

-1.5

-2 -500
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Time(s) Time(s)
Fig. 3. Commanded and actual torque signal Fig. 4. Commanded and actual velocity signal
0
increasing Kpo
-20
Magnitude (dB)

-40

-60

-80

-100
0

-45
Phase (deg)

-90

-135

-180 -2 0 2 4 6
10 10 10 10 10
Frequency (Hz)

Fig. 5 The change of system bandwidth with increasing the outer-loop gain
A compliant element in the joint will decrease the bandwidth of the system, but the bandwidth is
not absolutely dependent on the spring constant. As can be seen in Fig5, in order to maintain a high
closed-loop bandwidth, increasing the control gain could compensate the decreasing of the system
bandwidth.

Conclusion
In this paper, a cascade controller for a compliant actuator has been designed. There are two
sub-controllers in the cascade control strategy who provide four parameters to regulate the
characteristic. By analyzing the stability of the control system model and output impedance, simple
boundaries for the control system parameters are derived.

References
[1] D.W. ROBINSON: Design and Analysis of Series Elasticity in Closed-loop Actuator Force
Control ( PhD Thesis, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, 2000).
[2] M. M. WILLIAMSON: Series Elastic Actuators (MS Thesis, Department of Electrical
Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1995).
[3] G. A. PRATT and M. M. WILLIAMSON: Series Elastic Actuators, IEEE International
Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, 1995, vol. 1, pp. 399-406.
[4] G. A. PRATT: Stiffness isn’t everything. In Fourth International Symposium on Experimental
Robotics, ISER 95, (Stanford, California, June 30-July 2.1995).
[5] D. W. ROBINSON, J. E. PRATT, D. J. PALUSKA and G. A. PRATT: Series elastic actuator
development for a biomimetic walking robot. In 1999 IEEE/ASME International Conference on
Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics, (Atlanta, USA. September 19-23, 1999). pp:561-568.
[6] G. A. PRATT, P. WILLIAMSON, C. BOLTON and A. HOFMAN: Late Motor Processing in
Low-Impedance Robots: Impedance Control of Series Elastic Actuators, Proc of American
Control Conference (Boston, Massachusetts, June 30-July 2, 2004). pp: 3245-3251.
28 History of Mechanical Technology and Mechanical Design 2012

[7] R. VAN HAM, B. VANDERBORGHT, B. VERRELST, M. Van DAMME and D. LEFEBER:

Maccepa: the mechanically adjustable compliance and controllable equilibrium position
actuator used in the controlled passive walking biped veronica. The 15th International
Symposium on Measurement and Control in Robotics, 2005.
[8] H. HERR, A. WILKENFELD and J. BLAYA. Patient-adaptive prosthetic and orthotic leg
systems. The 12th Nordic Baltic Conference on Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics,
(Reykjavik, Iceland, June 2002). pp. 123–128.
[9] M. KIM, J. WEBER and S. CHA: A design of a modular force sensing robot arm for
self-assembling robots in a system. Robotics and Applications (Honolulu, Hawaii USA, August
2006).
[10] H. VALLERY: Passive and Accurate Torque Control of Series Elastic Actuators. Intelligent
Robots and Systems, IROS 2007 (San Diego, Oct. 29 2007-Nov. 2 2007). pp.3534 – 3538.
[11] G. WYETH: Demonstrating the Safety and Performance of a velocity sourced series elastic
actuators. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. (Pasadena, CA, USA,
May19-23, 2008). pp:3642-3647.
[12] R. GHORBANI: On Controllable Stiffness Bipedal Walking (PhD Thesis, Department of
Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, The University of Manitoba, 2008).
[13] E. COLGATE and N.HOGAN: An analysis of Contact Instability in Terms of Passive
Equivalents, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. 1989. pp.404-409.
[14] N. HOGAN: On the Stability of Manipulators Performing Contact Tasks, IEEE Journal of
Robotics and Automation, Vol. 4 (December 1988) No. 6, pp:677-686.
History of Mechanical Technology and Mechanical Design 2012
10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.163

Cascade Controller Design for Compliant Actuators

10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.163.23