Backlash compensation for a humanoid robot using disturbance observer

This paper describes the control of a geared DC motor having a backlash for implementation of a humanoid robot using disturbance observer. Critical problem of the humanoid robot is caused by the nonlinearity such as a backlash. To meet this problem, a control method using disturbance observer has been proposed. The disturbance observer is designed to estimate the effects of nonlinearities in the system, to make the nonlinear system behave linearly, and to cancel them efficiently. To design the low-pass filter in the disturbance observer, cut-off frequency of the output should be found. The goal of this paper is the implementation of the proposed system, compensating the backlash effect. To accomplish the goal, PD control and disturbance observer are employed to the system with no load and full load. As a result, system stability can be guaranteed by compensating the effect of backlash. In addition, real experiment shows the proposed control methodology will satisfy the stable working of a humanoid type in the future.