A novel fuzzy friction compensation approach to improve the performance of a DC motor control system

The compensation of friction nonlinearities for servomotor control has received much attention due to undesirable and disturbing effects that the friction often has on conventional control systems. Compensation methods have generally involved selecting a friction model and then using model parameters to cancel the effects of the nonlinearity. In this paper, a method using fuzzy logic for the compensation of nonlinear friction is developed for the control of a DC motor. The method is unique in that a single fuzzy rule is used to compensate directly for the nonlinearity of the physical system. As a result, the method introduces fewer adjustable parameters than a typical fuzzy logic approach while still incorporating many advantages of using fuzzy logic such as the incorporation of heuristic knowledge, ease of implementation and the lack of a need for an accurate mathematical model. The general approach, analysis and experimental results obtained for an actual DC motor system with nonlinear friction characteristics are presented and the effectiveness of the fuzzy friction compensation control technique is discussed. The smoothness of response, response times and disturbance rejection of a PI control system with and without the proposed fuzzy compensator are analyzed and discussed to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.