Vicente Feliu

• University of Castilla-La Mancha

Three factors that complicate the position and orientation control of unmanned autonomous vehicles are the hardware-induced delays, delays caused by teleoperated modes of operation, and persistent disturbances such as wind. In this article, we study how to overcome these challenges by controlling a twin rotor multi-input, multi-output system. This...

The main function of irrigation canals is to transport water efficiently from a source to target locations, but flow disturbances caused by farmer withdrawals often reduce water delivery efficiency to the destination. The dynamics of these canals involve a significant time delay. To address this, control systems based on the Smith predictor suitabl...

This article explores and compares the use of the linear quadratic regulator (LQR) theory to control a single-degree-of-freedom flexible link robot ( FLR) using an integer-order model and a fractional-order model. The fractional-order model is obtained from the integer-order one by introducing new “fictitious” fractional states. The LQR technique d...

Accurate knowledge of a robot's payload mass is crucial for tasks and necessary for adjusting controller gains to improve trajectory tracking, especially in Flexible Link Robots ( $FLR$ s) with complex, marginally stable dynamics. Changes in payload mass can destabilize the control system, making real-time mass estimation before maneuvers essentia...

Through system identification for robust control methods and utilizing real-time experimental field data, a comprehensive mathematical model is derived that represents the dynamic performance of a single electrode positioning system (EPS) in an industrial electric arc melting furnace (EAF). This EPS is characterized by large, time-varying dynamic p...

Haptic organs are common in nature and help animals to navigate environments where vision is not possible. Insects often use slender, lightweight, and flexible links as sensing antennae. These antennae have a muscle-endowed base that changes their orientation and an organ that senses the applied force and moment, enabling active sensing. Sensing an...

Dynamic models of main irrigation canals are necessary to carry out real-time canal flow control and supervision. Since the hydraulic equations of canal dynamics are nonlinear, their solution involves large computations that impede their use in real-time applications. Then these tasks are often implemented using simple local linear models obtained...

Accurate trajectory tracking is a paramount objective when a mobile robot must perform complicated tasks. In high-speed movements, hardware-induced delays may produce overshoots and even instability when controlling the system. In this case, Smith predictor controllers can be used because they are well suited for delayed processes. This paper addre...

The design of an adaptive Smith predictor controller for control of industrial hydraulic processes subjected to the simultaneous effect of load disturbances and time-varying time-delay is developed in this paper. In order to improve the performance of the Smith predictor, an adaptive block is introduced into the control structure to estimate and up...

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the development of measurement systems for mobile robots, including tactile systems based on bioinspired sensor antennas, inspired by the whiskers and antennas of animals and insects. This work focuses on studying a mobile robot equipped with such systems. Specifically, a dynamic model for the m...

This paper addresses the simultaneous characterization of the main vibration mode and the time delay of a teleoperated robot with a single flexible link. It uses the measurements of the motor encoder and strain gauges placed at the base of the link. These last ones may have significant offset and high-frequency noise. A new identification algorithm...

This work addresses the robust control of processes of the form G(s)=K·e−τ·s/(1+T·sλ) with 1<λ≤2. A new method for tuning fractional-order PI and PD controllers is developed. The stability is assessed based on the frequency domain tuning of the regulators to control such delayed fractional-order underdamped processes. In order to analyze the closed...

In this paper, two types of fractional-order damping are proposed for a single flexible link: internal and external friction, related to the material of the link and the environment, respectively. Considering these dampings, the Laplace transform is used to obtain the exact model of a slewing flexible link by means of the Euler–Bernoulli beam theor...

Model design and motion control are considered the cornerstones of the robotic field that allow for achieving performance tasks. This article proposes a new dynamic modeling and control approach for very lightweight mechanical systems carrying payloads. The selection of the model and the design of the control are elaborated on using a fractional or...

As a result of the exhaustion of fossil energy sources and the corresponding increase of their negative environmental impact, recent research has intensively focused on regions of alternative energy resources and, especially, on solar energy. Slow tracking of the maximum power point (MPP) and fluctuations around the MPP reduce the efficiency of pho...

The robust fractional order oil flow control in an oil pipeline is addressed in this paper. An experimental identification based on a step like input was developed which yielded a second order transfer function with a zero and a time varying time delay. Controllers are subsequently designed with nominal phase margin and zero steady state error of...

Accurate trajectory tracking is a paramount objective when a mobile robot must perform complicated tasks. In high-speed movements, time delays appear when reaching the desired position and orientation, as well as overshoots in the changes of orientation, which prevent the execution of some tasks. One of the aspects that most influences the tracking...

Large lightweight slender links mounted on mobile robots enlarge their workspace. This work presents one of these robots that has been endowed with 4 legs to improve its static stability—which is put at risk by the large link—and help in the positioning of the link. The efficiency of this system depends on its accuracy in positioning and orientatin...

In this article, two algorithms are proposed toidentify the parameters of elastic mechanical slightly dampedsystems with one dominant vibration mode, which are robust tosensor offset. The identification algorithms are obtained using thealgebraic identification framework. The first one differentiatesthe input and the output signals in order to remov...

The management of irrigation main canals are studied in this research. One way of improving this is designing an efficient automatic control system of the water that flows through the canal pools, which is usually carried out by PI controllers. However, since canal pools are systems with large time delays and nonlinear hydrodynamics, these PIs are...

The Incremental Conductance (IncCond) algorithm based on direct control mode is one of the highest Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) algorithms ensuring multiple performances compared to some other classical methods. Unfortunately, these performances can deteriorate, especially in the case of sudden changes in weather conditions and load variatio...

Many sensor systems in robotics are bio-inspired by similar mechanisms in living creatures. Birds frequently use their beaks to grasp and manipulate objects. This work proposes a very lightweight sensor system that emulates a birds beak, thus allowing flapping aerial robots to interact with the environment, as e.g. to perform grasping or manipulati...

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This paper focuses on the design of a suitable linear multi-inputs and multi-outputs model, which describes accurately the actual behavior of a twin rotor system where the small-signal approach is applied. The parameters of the given model are optimized through the pre-processed measurements recorded from the experimental test where the MATLAB® ide...

In this paper, a method to control one degree of freedom lightweight flexible manipulators is investigated. These robots have a single low-frequency and high amplitude vibration mode. They hold actuators with high friction, and sensors which are often strain gauges with offset and high-frequency noise. These problems reduce the motion’s performance...

This paper proposes the design of a PIá fractional robust controller with which to regulate the steam pressure in the steam drum of a bagasse-fired boiler. The dynamic behavior of this process was identified by means of experimentation. This identification procedure yielded an equivalent third order plus time delay model, and showed wide process st...

The control of the temperature of the burning zone of an industrial cement rotary kiln is addressed in this paper. An experimental identification of the process was carried out, which yielded a second order transfer function with no zeros but with a very large time delay. Moreover, it was detected that this time delay could change between ±8% of it...

The robust control of the crude oil outlet temperature uniformity in a heating furnace of a petroleum refinery is addressed. A reliable dynamic model of the nominal process has been attained using a system identification procedure based on real-time data. This procedure yields a second order model with a dominant time-delay. A PI controller embedde...

This paper proposes the design of an IMC-PID controller with a fractional order filter (IMC-FPID) forthe effective control of water distribution in a main irrigation canal pool. From real-time data and applying the system identification procedure a dynamic mathematical model of this process is obtained, which is represented by a first-order transfe...

This paper proposes the design of an IMC-PID controller with a fractional order filter (IMC-FPID) forthe effective control of water distribution in a main irrigation canal pool. From real-time data and applying the system identification procedure a dynamic mathematical model of this process is obtained, which is represented by a first-order transfe...

Dispositivo para la obtención de medidas para la determinación de la consistencia de una lámina ungueal de una uña de un usuario "in vivo". La lámina ungueal comprende un borde libre y está asociada a un lecho ungueal, caracterizado porque el dispositivo comprende un mecanismo de presión adaptado para aplicar fuerza puntual sobre el borde libre de...

This paper proposes the design of a state feedback Smith predictor controller (SFC-SP) for the effective temperature control in a precalciner of a cement rotary kiln. The dynamic model of this process is obtained from real-time data by applying a system identification procedure. This identification procedure yields a fourth order with dominant time...

The design and application of sensing antenna devices that mimic insect antennae or mammal whiskers is an active field of research. However, these devices still require new developments if they are to become efficient and reliable components of robotic systems. We, therefore, develop and build a prototype composed of a flexible beam, two servomotor...

This article deals with the control of two degrees of freedom manipulators that have a flexible and very lightweight link. These robots have a single low-frequency and high-amplitude vibration mode. Their actuators have high friction, and their vibration sensors are often strain gauges that have offset and high-frequency noise. These problems reduc...

This paper proposes the design of a PI α fractional robust controller with which to regulate the steam pressure in the steam drum of a bagasse-fired boiler. The dynamic behavior of this process was identified by means of experimentation. This identification procedure yielded an equivalent third order plus time delay model, and showed wide process s...

Conventionally, the parameters of a fuzzy logic controller (FLC) are obtained by a trial and error method or by human experience. In this paper, the problem of designing a FLC for maximum power point tracking (MPPT) of a photovoltaic system (PV) that consists of a PV generator, a DC-DC boost converter and a lead-acid battery is studied. The normali...

The robust control of the crude oil outlet temperature uniformity in a heating furnace of a petroleum refinery is addressed. A reliable dynamic model of the nominal process has been attained using a system identification procedure based on real-time data. This procedure yields a second order model with a dominant time-delay. A PI controller embedde...

The aim of this study was to design and evaluate a prototype of a snake-like endoscopic manipulator robot (SLEMR) and its corresponding automatic controller based on the first order sliding mode theory. The SLEMR was controlled with a set of actuators made of shape memory alloys (SMA). The SLEMR device was constructed with a sequential arrangement...

The control of the temperature of the burning zone of an industrial cement rotary kiln is addressed in this paper. An experimental identification of the process was carried out, which yielded a second order transfer function with no zeros but with a very large time delay. Moreover, it was detected that this time delay could change between ±8% of it...

In this paper, a review of the state of the art of the control strategies used for the water distribution control in irrigation systems is developed, aimed at increasing the operability of these systems, as well as reducing water losses due to operation. The historical advances of this kind of control systems are shown. Finally, some of the challen...

En este trabajo se desarrolla una revisión del estado del arte de las estrategias de control utilizadas para la distribución de agua en los sistemas de riego, orientadas a aumentar la operatividad de estos sistemas, así como a disminuir las pérdidas de agua por concepto de operación. Se muestran los avances históricos de esta clase de sistemas de c...

This paper studies the active damping of the oscillations of lightly damped linear systems whose parameters are indeterminate or may change through time. Systems with an arbitrary number of vibration modes are considered. Systems described by partial differential equations, that yield an infinite number of vibration modes, can also be included. In...

This work addresses the robust control of a pool of a main irrigation canal working in a submerged flow condition. A laboratory prototype of hydraulic canal at the University of Castilla-La Mancha is used in this study. A series connection of a non-linear static block and a linear first order plus time delay system is proposed to model the dynamics...

The control of the temperature of the burning zone of an industrial cement rotary kiln is addressed in this paper. An experimental identification of the process was carried out, which yielded a second order transfer function with no zeros but with a very large time delay. Moreover, it was detected that this time delay could change between ±8% of it...

This paper proposes an adaptive robust impedance control for a single-link flexible arm when it encounters an environment at an unknown intermediate point. First, the intermediate collision point is estimated using a collision detection algorithm. The controller, then, switches from free to constrained motion mode. In the unconstrained motion mode,...

The fast and accurate tracking of periodic and arbitrary reference trajectories is the principal goal in many nanopositioning applications. Flexure-based piezoelectric stack driven nanopositioners are widely employed in applications where accurate mechanical displacements at these nanometer scales are required. The performance of these nanoposition...

In this paper, a new strategy for robust control of temperature in a steel slab reheating furnace with large time delay uncertainty based on fractionalorder controllers combined with a Smith predictor is proposed. A time delay model of the preheating zone of this process is used, obtained from an identification procedure applied in a real industria...

In this article, a novel maximum power point tracking (MPPT) controller for a photovoltaic (PV) system is presented. The proposed MPPT controller was designed in order to extract the maximum of power from the PV-module and reduce the oscillations once the maximum power point (MPP) had been achieved. To reach this goal, a combination of fuzzy logic...

This article addresses the identification of the nonlinear dynamics of the main pool of a laboratory hydraulic canal installed in the University of Castilla La Mancha. A new dynamic model has been developed by taking into account the measurement errors caused by the different parts of our experimental setup: (a) the nonlinearity associated to the i...

This work presents a new methodology for the design of passivity-based controllers of fractional order for single-link flexible robots. In this work, some previously developed passivity-based controllers, which have robust stability to parametric uncertainties and spillover effects, are extended by using phase-lag controllers of fractional order. T...

The control of robots that interact with the environment is an open area of research. Two applications that benefit from this study are: the control of the force exerted by a robot on an object, which allows the robot to perform complex tasks like assembly operations, and the control of collisions, which allows the robot safely collaborate with hum...

This work is concerned with the mechanical design and the description of the different components of a new mobile base for a lightweight mobile manipulator. These kinds of mobile manipulators are normally composed of multiple lightweight links mounted on a mobile platform. This work is focused on the description of the mobile platform, the developm...

This article addresses the control of a laboratory hydraulic canal prototype that has fractional order dynamics and a time delay. Controlling this prototype is relevant since its dynamics closely resembles the dynamics of real main irrigation canals. Moreover, the dynamics of hydraulic canals vary largely when the operation regime changes since the...

El trabajo se enmarca en el campo de las investigaciones básicas y aplicadas de las Ciencias Técnicas y abarca una obra desarrollada durante los últimos 15 años por investigadores de la Universidad Tecnológica de la Habana y de la Universidad de Castilla La Mancha (España), con resultados originales y novedosos, así como con aportes teóricos y prác...

The gravity compensation of flexible link manipu-lators using mechanisms based on counterweights has been previously studied in the research literature. However, as far as we are concerned, no attempt has been done to study the difficulties and benefits of constructing mechanisms for the same purposes based on springs. This paper presents a gravita...

Parameter uncertainty is a key challenge in the real-time control of nanopositioners employed in Scanning Probe Microscopy. Changes in the sample to be scanned, introduces changes in system resonances; requiring instantaneous online tuning of controller parameters to ensure stable, optimal scanning performance. This paper presents a method based on...

El resultado abarca los últimos 15 años de investigaciones básicas y aplicadas de las ciencias técnicas, con aportes teóricos y prácticos al conocimiento en el campo de la automatización de procesos, que son sin duda originales y novedosos, expresados en el desarrollo de una nueva familia de controladores de orden fraccionario (FOC, por sus siglas...

El trabajo se enmarca en el campo de las investigaciones básicas y aplicadas de las Ciencias Técnicas y abarca una obra desarrollada durante los últimos 15 años por investigadores de la Universidad Tecnológica de la Habana y de la Universidad de Castilla La Mancha (España), con resultados originales y novedosos, así como con aportes teóricos y prác...

In this paper by applying the direct continuous-time system identification methods an accurate and reliable control oriented model of the conductivity in the polishing phase of the purification process of the nimotuzumab, a monoclonal antibody, is derived. A brief introduction to the theoretical aspects of the direct continuous-time system identifi...

This paper presents a study of motion of an artificial flagellum microrobot in a viscous environment in COMSOL Multiphysics. The microrobot is essentially a body, consisting of a piezoelectric layered beam divided into several segments. Its actuation for propulsion relies on the creation of a non-reciprocal motion along the body. This requires that...

Recent advances in mobile robotic technologies have enabled significant progress to be made in the development of Stair-Climbing Mobility Systems (SCMSs) for people with mobility impairments and limitations. These devices are mainly characterized by their ability to negotiate those architectural barriers associated with climbing stairs (curbs, ramp...

In this paper a fractional order model for an irrigation main canal is proposed. This system has two pools that present a strong interaction between them. Then a multivariable model with two inputs: the pump flow and the opening of an intermediate gate, and two outputs: the water levels in the two pools, is derived. The identification of the model...

A fractional-order robust controller to control a reverse osmosis desalination plant is proposed. The dynamics of this plant was experimentally identified. A multivariable mathematical model was obtained which showed large plant parameter variations. The proposed control system is composed of a decoupler, a diagonal compensator of the less variable...

By exploiting the co-located sensor-actuator arrangement in typical flexure-based piezoelectric stack actuated nanopositioners, the polezero interlacing exhibited by their axial frequency response can be transformed to a zero-pole interlacing by adding a constant feed-through term. The Integral Resonant Control (IRC) utilizes this unique property t...

In this paper by applying system identification tools a neural network model of an irrigation main canal pool is obtained. The complete system identification procedure, from experimental design to model validation, taking into account prior physical information, is developed. It is established that a nonlinear model with NARX structure can adequate...

In this paper by applying system identification tools a neural network model of an irrigation main canal pool is obtained. The complete system identification procedure, from experimental design to model validation, taking into account prior physical information, is developed. It is established that a nonlinear model with NARX structure can adequate...

In this paper by applying system identification tools a neural network model of an irrigation main canal pool is obtained. The complete system identification procedure, from experimental design to model validation, taking into account prior physical information, is developed. It is established that a nonlinear model with NARX structure can adequate...

In this paper a two-input, two-output (TITO) fractional order mathematical model of a laboratory prototype of a hydraulic canal is proposed. This canal is made up of two pools that have a strong interaction between them. The inputs of the TITO model are the pump flow and the opening of an intermediate gate, and the two outputs are the water levels...

This paper presents the development of a hybrid model that describes the temperature, elongation and inner force relationships in a spring Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) actuator. The temperature-inner force relationship obeys a hybrid structure in which a sigmoid function correlates the variation of temperature for the SMA and the force executed by the...

Positive Position Feedback (PPF) is a widely used control technique for damping the lightly damped resonant modes of various dynamic systems. Though PPF controller is easy to implement any rigorous mathematical optimization is not possible due to the controller structure. Therefore, almost all PPF designs reported in literature use a trial-and-erro...

This paper presents a two degrees of freedom (2DOF) control scheme for voltage compensation in a dynamic voltage restorer (DVR). It commences with the model of the DVR power circuit, which is the starting point for the control design procedure. The control scheme is based on a 2DOF structure implemented in a stationary reference frame (α-β), with t...

A fractional-order robust controller to control a reverse osmosis desalination plant is proposed. The dynamics of this plant was experimentally identified. A multivariable mathematical model was obtained which showed large plant parameter variations. The proposed control system is composed of a decoupler, a diagonal compensator of the less variable...

This work presents a new methodology for the design of the positioning control of single-link flexible manipulators which present only one vibration mode in their dynamics. In this work, the standard phase-lead compensator will be extended to a fractional-order compensator which will be used to minimize the vibrations of the flexible-link. The cont...

A fractional-order robust controller to control a reverse osmosis desalination plant is proposed. The dynamics of this plant was experimentally identified. A multivariable mathematical model was obtained which showed large plant parameter variations. The proposed control system is composed of a decoupler, a diagonal compensator of the less variable...

This paper proposes a Fractional-order modification of the traditional Integral Resonant Controller named as FIRC. The fractional integral action utilised in the proposed FIRC is a simple, robust, and well-performing technique for vibration control in smart structures with collocated sensor-actuator pairs such as nanopositioning stages. The propose...

This article addresses the control of a laboratory hydraulic canal prototype that has fractional order dynamics and a time delay. Controlling this prototype is relevant since its dynamics closely resembles the dynamics of real main irrigation canals. Moreover, the dynamics of hydraulic canals vary largely when the operation regime changes since the...

In this paper a modified Smith predictor, using an adaptive block based on fuzzy logic and a feedforward compensator, for e�ective control of mixture concentration in the injectable drugs manufacturing process of a pharmaceutical industry is designed. A new mathematical model with varying time delay that adequately characterized the dynamic behavio...

Some insects or mammals use antennae or whiskers to detect by the sense of touch obstacles or recognize objects in environments in which other senses like vision cannot work. Artificial flexible antennae can be used in robotics to mimic this sense of touch in these recognition tasks. We have designed and built a two-degree of freedom (2DOF) flexibl...

In this paper a fractional order model for an irrigation main canal is proposed. This system has two pools that present a strong interaction between them. Then a multivariable model with two inputs: the pump flow and the opening of an intermediate gate, and two outputs: the water levels in the two pools, is derived. The identification of the model...

Flexible links combined with force and torque sensors can be used to detect obstacles in mobile robotics, as well as for surface and object recognition. These devices, called sensing antennae, perform an active sensing strategy in which a servomotor system moves the link back and forth until it hits an object. At this instant, information of the mo...

In this paper we address the trajectory tracking problem of the end-effector of a single link flexible arm in which the gravity forces and the joint friction forces are taken into account. As an overall approach, a double loop cascade control is used to deal with the joint friction: in its inner loop a two-degree-of-freedom controller is responsibl...

The steel industry is among the companies with highest energy consumption due to the heating processes in their production. Furnaces used for slabs reheating in this industry require a good regulator to control temperature in each zone optimizing combustible consumption. Considering the complex and variable dynamic behavior of furnace temperature,...