Lag-Lead Compensator for Shape Memory Alloy in Gripping Manipulation

Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) is emerging actuator for micro and nano application, on the other hand the developing controller in such area needs much further considerations.This paper is to present the evaluation of close-loop controller responses of the TiNi SMA spring based gripper by introduced lag, lead and lag-lead compensator. A SMA spring has a diameter of 50 mm wire and 350 gram hanging mass. Driving the SMA actuator is used pulse width modulation (PWM) signal and responses tested by varying frequencies and duty-cycles. The implemented frequencies in this study are 12, 25, 125, 250 and 1150 Hz. Lab-View and DAQ-Card is used as a controller, interfacer and data recorder of the system. The gripper fabricated consists of two fingers and the total angular displacement of the gripper is 300. The experimental result of the SMA open-loop response are presented and discussed. For advanced application, the close-loop controller is implemented and studied. The close-loop controllers employed are lag, lead and lag-lead compensator. The SMA response indicated that the rise-time and the steady-state error of the cloop-loop are shorter and lower than open-loop controller. The tuning, response and program of the lag, lead and lag-lead compensator are presented and discussed in this paper.