Surface defect detection for the printed circuit board (PCB) is essential in PCB manufacturing. Existing defect detection networks have several problems: low detection efficiency, high memory consumption, and low sensitivity to small defects. To address these issues, we propose a new lightweight deep-learning-based defect detection network, YOLOX with a modified CSPDarknet and coordinate attention (YOLOX-MC-CA). YOLOX-MC-CA is developed on the YOLOX and uses the coordinate attention (CA) mechanism to improve the recognition capability of small PCB surface defects. The backbone network in YOLOX is also modified into a new CSPdarknet structure with some inverted residual blocks. The modified CSPDarknet (MC) backbone network helps the YOLOX decrease the number of parameters on the premise of guaranteeing the feature extraction ability. We evaluated the YOLOX-MC-CA with an augmented dataset based on a public PCB surface defect dataset. Compared to the squeeze-and-excitation (SE) module, convolutional block attention module (CBAM), and other approaches in previous research, the CA mechanism improves the network with more detection precision for the small PCB surface defects. The experimental results demonstrate that our network is superior to other state-of-the-art (SOTA) networks for PCB surface defect detection, scoring 99.13% on mean average precision (mAP) and 47.6 frames per second (FPS) on detection speed, only occupying a parameter space of 3.79 million (M). It demonstrates that the proposed network is more suitable for deployment on embedded systems.

A novel control scheme utilizing fractional-order terminal sliding mode control with sliding perturbation observer (FOTSMCSPO) is proposed herein. It was used to solve the trajectory tracking problem on a seven-degree-of-freedom robot manipulator. The fractional-order terminal sliding mode in FOTSMCSPO provides a finite convergence time for reaching the sliding surface. A sliding perturbation observer (SPO) is used to estimate the disturbance from the environment and modeling uncertainties. The new control scheme exhibits high precision, fast convergence and robust performance against lumped uncertainties. These advantages are ensured through the newly designed fractional-order terminal sliding surface and the SPO. The stability is analyzed based on the Lyapunov functions for general and fractional-order systems. An implementation on a real robot manipulator demonstrated the effects and performance of the new control method.

In this study, a three-degree-of-freedom hydraulic system device configured as a master-and-slave manipulator system is considered. A methodology to estimate reaction force in aforementioned system is proposed without utilizing any force sensor/signal. A terminal sliding control with a sliding perturbation observer (TSMCSPO) is designed for coupled master-slave system. The fundamental benefit of the proposed scheme is that the sliding perturbation observer estimates the reaction force related to the end effector and second link without utilizing a force sensor. Robust and accurate position tracking is achieved with terminal sliding-mode control in addition to control of the slave manipulator. The position and force tracking for master-slave is estimated based upon bilateral control strategy. The difference in the reaction and operating force is included in the impedance model. The impedance model is implemented in the master device to provide the operator with a sense of the reaction force when it connects with the environment. The experimental results confirm the robust position and force tracking of the slave manipulator.

This paper proposes a novel controller, fast fractional-order terminal sliding mode control (FFOTSMC), for a seven-degree-of-freedom (7-DOF) robot manipulator with tracking control. The new controller applies the fractional-order derivative on both the sliding surface design and the sliding control/reaching law. Compared to previous research, which only applies the fractional-order derivative on the sliding surface design, the proposed controller has a faster convergence for reaching the sliding surface and maintaining stay on it because of the new fractional-order control law, which helps the tracking accuracy. To implement the controller on the robot with less chattering, a sliding perturbation observer (SPO) is used to estimate the disturbance and uncertainties. Stability analysis is analyzed using Lyapunov functions for fractional-order systems. The controller performance is evaluated by a simulation of a single-input and single-output (SISO) system in MATLAB Simulink and experiments on the robot manipulator.

This paper proposes a new designed trajectory tracking method for a hydraulic manipulator, which is the terminal sliding mode control with sliding perturbation observer (TSMCSPO). The dynamics of the hydraulic system are complex and uncertain, it also generates a large reaction force when working as an excavator or a dismantling robot. In this paper, the new control law is designed to force the trajectory of the hydraulic system to follow the reference despite complex dynamics, modeling error, the huge reaction force, and dynamic uncertainties. The sliding perturbation observer (SPO) in TSMCSPO estimates all disturbances from the outside environment, dynamic uncertainties, and modeling errors in real time. We included a simulation and an experiment to verify the approach, and to demonstrate the performance compared with other controllers (SMCSPO, SMC, and TSMC). Stabilities of SPO and TSMCSPO were analyzed based on the Lyapunov stability theory.

In nuclear power plants (NPP), dismantling is the most technically involved process during their life time. During the dismantling process, public safety must be ensured. In crisis situations, a remotely controlled robot system is needed for the dismantling of NPP. Therefore, in this research, a bilateral tele-operation system is proposed to tackle these emergency conditions. Transparency can be improved by using force and position signal in the control strategy. In some applications, force cannot be determine directly using physical sensors. In this work, a novel tele-operated bilateral control strategy is proposed to estimate the reaction force of 3-degree-of-freedom (DOF) master and hydraulic slave manipulators without the use of a sensor. The control strategy is developed by using sliding mode control with sliding perturbation observer (SMCSPO). The sliding perturbation observer (SPO) estimates the reaction force at the end effector and second link without using sensors. The sliding mode control (SMC) is used as a tele-operated bilateral controller for the robust position tracking and control of the slave device. The impedance model is used to differentiate between the applied force (force exerted by operator) and the reaction force due to the remote environment. Different experiments were performed to verify the proposed strategy. The results indicate that the slave manipulator exactly follows the trajectory of the master device. A camera is used to take visual feedback of the workspace for safety purpose. This technique can also be applied for higher-order DOF manipulators in NPP.