Implementation of a fuzzy logic controller for laser tracking system

Summary: With the strikingly fast development of industrial applications and research projects, control systems have become more and more complex than ever. Intelligent control techniques, featuring their being more robust and their availability when system mathematical models are unknown, have proven to be one of the most attractive and highlighted areas in the automatic control arena. This thesis concentrates first on the design of a laser tracking system. A standard design procedure of Fuzzy Logic Controllers (FLCs) is followed, which is then realized in a PC-based environment in the design. An essential issue in this thesis study is the auto tuning of the Fuzzy Logic Controller. An efficient tuning method, mu-law functions, which can adjust both the shape and scaling gain of fuzzy controller's decision table is adopted. Also a search process called Downhill Simplex Search is chosen. Combining these two methods, a Simplex-mu-law auto-tuning algorithm that fits our application is applied to tune the FLC for the laser tracking system. Another issue covered in this research is to modify the Fuzzy Logic Controller structure by changing the distribution of the membership functions. Based on the analysis of the real time error histogram of the system, a novel method is proposed in the thesis for the modification of the membership functions To assess the effectiveness of the methods proposed in this thesis, a prototype laser tracking system is constructed at the FAU Robotics Center. The control strategy proposed in this thesis is tested extensively by simulations and experimentations on the prototype system.
College of Engineering and Computer Science
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1999.