A torque-ripple compensation scheme for harmonic drive systems

This paper presents a scheme for controlling the output torque of a harmonic drive actuator equipped with a torque sensor. The proposed control is composed of a feedback control and a feedforward learning control, in which the feedback control shapes nominal system dynamics using the internal model control structure. The feedforward learning controller employs a disturbance observer (DOB) to evaluate compensation error of the feedforward control for the learning, so as to compensate for torque ripples induced by harmonic drives. Robust stability conditions of the proposed DOB-based learning control system are provided. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme in alleviating the major component of torque ripples whose frequency is twice the angular frequency of the input shaft.