Adaptive Contouring Control for High-Accuracy Tracking Systems

In this paper, the desired performance of the mechanical system is specified in terms of contouring error instead of traditional method which specifies a task as a desired timed trajectory tracking problem. By defining the task frame, a simplified contouring error model is obtained through projecting tracking error to this new frame. Then a novel adaptive contouring controller is developed directly in the task frame to handle bounded external disturbances and system model uncertainties while maintaining superior contouring tracking performance. The algorithm effectively exploit the the structure of manipulator dynamics to reduce the computation complexity. Experimental results on an AC motor driven X-Y table demonstrate the merit of significant improvement of the proposed controller for increasing contouring accuracy compared with other conventional control algorithms.