Presidential Young Investigator Award: The Dynamics and Control of High-Speed Direct-Drive Manipulators

这项建议是为了支持基金会总统青年研究员(PYI)奖励计划下的研究。Youcef-Toumi博士的研究方向是用于制造应用的高速直接驱动机械手的动力学和控制。直接驱动机械手是一种机械臂，其中高扭矩电机直接耦合到机械臂的关节轴上。消除了电机与其相应负载之间的齿轮传动，产生了无间隙、低摩擦和高机械刚度的机械臂。所有这些特性都是快速、准确和通用的力矩控制机械手所需要的。他早期的研究成功地开发了一种使用高扭矩无刷电机的直接驱动臂。实现的最大速度和加速度分别为10米/秒和5G，比现有机器人快了一个数量级。根据这项拨款，要解决的研究问题包括高性能伺服控制技术的开发，手臂动力学分析，以及使用非线性反馈/前馈补偿的高速高精度轨迹控制。要解决的其他研究问题包括建模和控制系统设计、硬件实现以及扭矩/力控制应用的软件开发。PYI计划的目标是为国家最杰出和最有前途的年轻科学和工程教师提供支持。这些奖项旨在提高美国学术机构响应学术和工业研究和教学对高素质科学家和工程师的需求的能力。根据这些目标，建议为Youcef-Toumi博士颁发总统青年研究人员奖。这是一个为期五年的连续奖项。每年的资金将在25,000美元的基础水平上，再加上最高37,500美元的补充资金，以匹配所获得的工业支持。

This proposal is for support of research under the Foundation's Presidential Young Investigator (PYI) Awards program. Dr. Youcef-Toumi's research is directed toward the dynamics and control of high-speed direct-drive manipulators for manufacturing applications. The direct-drive manipulator is a robotic arm where high torque motors are direct coupled to the joint axes of the arm. The elimination of gearing between the motors and their corresponding loads results in an arm that has no backlash, low friction and high mechanical stiffness. All of these characteristics are desirable for fast, accurate and versatile torque controlled manipulators. His early research succeeded in developing a direct-drive arm using high torque brushless motors. The maximum speed and acceleration achieved were 10 m/sec and 5G respectively, which are an order of magnitude faster than existing robots. Research issues to be addressed under this grant include the development of control techniques for high performance servoing, analysis of the arm dynamics, and high speed high-accuracy trajectory control using nonlinear feedback/feedforward compensations. Additional research issues to be addressed include modeling and control systems design, hardware implementation, and software development for torque/force control applications. The objectives of the PYI program are to provide support to the Nation's most outstanding and promising young science and engineering faculty. The awards are intended to improve the capability of U.S. academic institutions to respond to the demand for highly qualified scientists and engineers for academic and industrial research and teaching. In accordance with those objectives, a Presidential Young Investigator Award for Dr. Youcef- Toumi is recommended. This is a five-year continuing award. Annual funding will be at the base level of $25,000 with a supplement of up to $37,500 to match industrial support obtained.