This paper concerns the realization of a sensorless permanent magnet (PM) synchronous motor drive. Position and angular speed of the rotor are obtained through an extended Kalman filter. The estimation algorithm does not require either the knowledge of the mechanical parameters or the initial rotor position, overcoming two of the main drawbacks of other estimation techniques. The drive also incorporates a digital d-q current control, which can be easily tuned with locked rotor. The experimental setup includes a PM synchronous motor, a pulsewidth modulation voltage-source inverter, and floating-point digital-signal-processor-based control system.

This paper describes an environment for the design, simulation, and control of Internet-based force-reflecting telerobotic systems. We define these systems as using a segment of the computer network to connect the master to the slave. Computer networks introduce a time delay that is best described by a time-varying random process. Thus, known techniques for controlling time-delay telerobots are not directly applicable, and an environment for iterative designing and testing is necessary. The underlying software architecture sup ports tools for modeling the delay of the computer network, design ing a stable controller, simulating the performance of a telerobotic system, and testing the control algorithms using a force-reflecting input device. Furthermore, this setup provides data about including the Internet into more general telerobotic control architectures. To demonstrate the features of this environment, the complete proce dure for the design of a telerobotic controller is discussed. First, the delay parameters of an Internet segment are identified by prob ing the network. Then, these parameters are used in the design of a controller that includes a quasi-optimal estimator to compensate small data losses. Finally, simulations of the complete telerobotic system and emulations using a planar force-reflecting master and a virtual slave exemplify a typical design-and-test sequence.

This paper presents the research on tactile sensing system on chip. The tactile sensing chips comprise of 5 × 5 array of Piezoelectric Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (POSFET) devices and temperature sensors. The POSFET devices are obtained by spin coating piezoelectric polymer, poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) (P(VDF-TrFE)), films directly on to the gate area of Metal Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) transistors. The tactile sensing chips are able to measure dynamic contact forces and temperatures. The readout and the data acquisition system to acquire the tactile signals are also presented. The chips have been extensively tested over wide range of dynamic contact forces and temperatures and the experimental results are presented. The paper also reports the research on tactile sensing chips with POSFET array and the integrated electronics.

In a research field of network-based control systems (NBCSs), the time delay problem is one of the most significant issues. Efficient stabilization methods of time delayed control systems enable NBCSs to be flexibly applied to many kinds of situations. A novel time delay compensation method based on the concept of network disturbance (ND) and communication disturbance observer (CDOB) has been proposed. The compensation method has the same effectiveness as that of the Smith predictor. In addition, since the method is simple and does not need time delay model or time delay measurement, it can be easily implemented to various applications. However, the design method has not been concerned so far. This paper therefore presents stability analysis and studies a practical design procedure of the time delayed control systems with CDOB. At first, the concept of ND is introduced and the validity of the time delay compensation method is described. Then an analysis about the effects of parameters in control systems on stability is conducted. Characteristics of the effects of parameters on stability come out. Then we study a practical design procedure of the time delayed control systems. The validity of the design procedure is validated by experimental results. In the experiment, we also verify the performance of the system in the case of time-varying delay. Finally, comparative study of the method to the Smith predictor is presented.

In order to enhance the sensitivity and to reduce the readout circuit complexity of any angular velocity microsensor (vibrating gyroscope), it is crucial to reduce the frequency mismatch of its resonant modes of vibration. Achieving a good matching accuracy during fabrication is rather difficult because of tolerances and process variations that detrimentally affect the manufacturing precision. Moreover, even assuming to achieve a good frequency matching through fabrication or postfabrication calibration, it is very likely that parametric variations induced by the external environment during the normal operation of the device disrupt any initial tuning. For these reasons, in this paper, an alternative way to accomplish the frequency-matching condition is suggested, which exploits a real-time adjusting mechanism based on an automatic mode-matching control loop. In particular, this paper describes the details of an adaptive controller capable of automatically matching the resonant frequencies of the two main modes of vibration of a single-axis vibrating microgyroscope, under the provision that there is an underlying mechanism through which the frequency mismatch can be controlled by adjusting a suitable tunable parameter. The controller is designed by considering the requirement of reducing its complexity, so that it can be easily implemented on cheap sensors. Owing to a key observation that allows the recast of the frequency-matching problem as a maximization problem, the proposed mode-matching controller is actually designed as a standard perturbation-based extremum-seeking controller, which can be implemented by using few analog electronic components. The proposed solution has been tested on the LISY300AL yaw-rate microelectromechanical system gyroscope manufactured by STMicroelectronics, showing that a mode matching of nearly 1 Hz or less can be easily attained.