3-DOF Parallel manipulator control using PID controller

A parallel 3-DOF manipulator known as Maryland manipulator is considered in this paper. The trajectory tracking control of the Maryland manipulator is done using PID controller. Three sequential trajectories are used to provide complete dynamic analysis of the manipulator. The tuning of PID controller is done by using Zeigler-Nichols and genetic algorithm. The motivation behind using PID controller is its simplicity and effectiveness. The manipulator is a highly coupled and nonlinear system so the correct determination of control signal is very important to achieve good tracking performance. The process for selecting the PID parameters are discussed in detail and the simulations results are used to show the efficacy of the controller.