This paper analyzes the robustness and stability of a disturbance observer (DOB) and a reaction torque observer (RTOB)-based robust motion control systems. Conventionally, a DOB is analyzed by using an ideal velocity measurement that is obtained without using a low-pass filter (LPF); however, it is impractical due to noise constraints. An LPF of velocity measurement changes the robustness of a DOB significantly and puts a new design constraint on the bandwidth of a DOB. An RTOB, which is used to estimate environmental impedance, is an application of a DOB. The stability of an RTOB-based robust force control system has not been reported yet since its oversimplified model is derived by assuming that an RTOB has a feedforward control structure. However, in reality, it has a feedback control structure; therefore, not only the performance but also the stability is affected by the design parameters of an RTOB. A new practical stability analysis method is proposed for an RTOB-based robust force control system. In addition to that, novel and practical design methods, which improve the robustness of a DOB and the stability and performance of an RTOB-based robust force control system, are proposed by using the new analysis methods. The validity of the proposals is verified by simulation and experimental results.

The goal of this paper is to clarify the robustness and performance constraints in the design of control systems based on disturbance observer (DOB). Although the bandwidth constraints of a DOB have long been very well-known by experiences and observations, they have not been formulated and clearly reported yet. In this regard, the Bode and Poisson integral formulas are utilized in the robustness analysis so that the bandwidth constraints of a DOB are derived analytically. In this paper, it is shown that the bandwidth of a DOB has upper and lower bounds to obtain a good robustness if the plant has nonminimum phase zero(s) and pole(s), respectively. Besides that the performance of a system can be improved by using a higher order disturbance observer (HODOB); however, the robustness may deteriorate, and the bandwidth constraints become more severe. New analysis and design methods, which provide good robustness and predefined performance criteria, are proposed for the DOB based robust control systems. The validity of the proposals is verified by simulation results.

This paper proposes an acceleration-based robust controller for the motion control problem, i.e., position and force control problems, of a novel series elastic actuator (SEA). A variable stiffness SEA is designed by using soft and hard springs in series so as to relax the fundamental performance limitation of conventional SEAs. Although the proposed SEA intrinsically has several superiorities in force control, its motion control problem, especially position control problem, is harder than conventional stiff and SEAs due to its special mechanical structure. It is shown that the performance of the novel SEA is limited when conventional motion control methods are used. The performance of the steady-state response is significantly improved by using disturbance observer (DOb), i.e., improving the robustness; however, it degrades the transient response by increasing the vibration at tip point. The vibration of the novel SEA and external disturbances are suppressed by using resonance ratio control (RRC) and arm DOb, respectively. The proposed method can be used in the motion control problem of conventional SEAs as well. The intrinsically safe mechanical structure and high-performance motion control system provide several benefits in industrial applications, e.g., robots can perform dexterous and versatile industrial tasks alongside people in a factory setting. The experimental results show viability of the proposals.

This paper analyzes the robustness and stability of disturbance observer (DOb)-based explicit force control systems. Conventional analysis methods, which only consider ideal robustness, are impractical due to the design constraints of a DOb, e.g., bandwidth limitations. This paper shows that not only the stability but also the robustness of a DOb-based explicit force control system changes by environmental impedance variations. The robustness of a DOb-based explicit force control system is clarified by deriving new sensitivity functions. Implicit and explicit environmental impedance estimation methods are considered by analyzing the dynamics of a force sensor and a reaction force observer (RFOb), respectively. It is shown that the stability and performance of an explicit force control system can be improved by using an explicit environmental impedance estimation method, i.e., an RFOb, intrinsically. However, an RFOb is more sensitive than a force sensor to external disturbances, and the stability of the explicit force control system drastically changes by the design parameters of a DOb and an RFOb. Force-sensor- and RFOb-based explicit robust force control systems are compared in terms of stability, robustness, and performance in detail. The validity of the proposals is verified by simulation and experimental results.

In this paper, a new adaptive design method is proposed for reaction force observer (RFOB)-based robust force control systems. It is a well-known fact that an RFOB has several superiorities over a force sensor such as higher force control bandwidth, stability improvement, force-sensorless force control, and so on. However, there are insufficient analysis and design methods for an RFOB-based robust force control system; therefore, its stability and performance highly depend on designers own experiences. To overcome this issue, a new stability analysis and a novel adaptive design method are proposed for RFOB-based robust force control systems. In the proposed adaptive design method, the design parameters of the robust force control system, i.e., the bandwidths of disturbance observer (DOB) and RFOB, the nominal and identified inertias in the design of DOB and RFOB, respectively, and the force control gain, are adjusted automatically by using an adaptive control algorithm which is derived by estimating the plant parameters and environmental impedance. The proposed adaptive design method provides good stability and performance by considering the design constraints of a DOB. The validity of the proposals is verified by simulation and experimental results.