IEEE/ASME TRANSACTIONS ON MECHATRONICS, VOL. 11, NO.
1, FEBRUARY 2006
Design of Learning Input Shaping Technique for
Residual Vibration Suppression in an Industrial Robot
Juyi Park, Member, IEEE, Pyung-Hun Chang, Member, IEEE, Hyung-Soon Park,
and Eunjeong Lee, Member, IEEE
Abstract—In this paper, a practical method is proposed to sup-
press residual vibrations of industrial robots without a real-time
estimation of vibration frequencies. Through theoretical analysis
and experiments, we designed an input shaping technique (IST)
for the first three axes of a six-degrees-of-freedom industrial robot.
Iterative learning IST (LIST) is applied to the first axis to suppress
its time-varying nonlinear residual vibration, while conventional
IST is applied to the second and third axes. Experimental results
show that LIST can suppress residual vibrations to a level similar
to that of a time-varying IST which requires complicated real-time
estimation of a dynamic model. The LIST is an attractive method
for suppression of nonlinear and time-varying residual vibrations
in industrial robots which perform repetitive tasks because most
industrial robots have limited computing power and memory space
in their controllers.
Index Terms—Flexible structure, industrial robot, input shap-
ing, iterative learning algorithm, residual vibration.
I. INTRODUCTION
N controlling industrial robots, fast and precise motions are
I required for better productivity. Such motions, however, are
often restricted by residual vibrations in the end-effector, which
tend to be time varying and nonlinear due to the configuration-
dependent friction, inertia variation, and nonlinear stiffness of
joints.
For suppression of residual vibrations in flexible systems,
there are two distinct approaches: open-loop feedforward [1]
and closed-loop feedback [2]. In terms of performance, the latter
scheme is more attractive than the former because it is inherently
more robust against disturbances and parameter variations. In
terms of practical implementation, however, the closed-loop
approach makes overall systems more complex and expensive.
More specifically, the increased states due to vibrational modes
increase the order of the control systems, thereby requiring more
computation and more sensors as well as the measurability of the
additional states. Because of these difficulties, many researchers
have developed feedforward schemes integrated with feedback
controllers [3], [4]. They reported that the schemes are simple
Manuscript received December 24, 2003; revised April 18, 2005. Recom-
mended by Technical Editor R. V. Patel. The work of P.-H. Chang was supported
by the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) through the Center
for Human-Friendly Welfare Robotic Systems (HWRS).
J. Park is with Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Company Ltd.,
Koje City, 656-714 Korea.
P.-H. Chang and E. Lee are with the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and
Technology (KAIST), Daejon 305-701, Korea.
H.-S. Park is with the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60611
USA.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMECH.2005.863365
1083-4435/$20.00 © 2006 IEEE
55
in their structure and robust against disturbances or parameter
variations, thus very useful for practical applications.
Based on the observations above, we have considered the in-
put shaping technique (IST) proposed by Singer and Seering [3]
as the feedforward scheme to be combined with a feedback
controller. Since the beginning, the IST has attracted attention
owing to its effectiveness and simplicity. Its effectiveness has
been proven in practical systems such as ship cranes [5], chip
mounters [6] and open container, of liquid [7]. Nevertheless,
since the IST was proposed originally for linear time-invariant
systems [3], it is not so effective for systems with nonlinear
and time-varying characteristics such as the multilink robots
we are interested in. Even robust IST [3], which compensates
for inaccuracies of frequency estimation, is not of much help
for these systems.
To overcome this difficulty, many attempts have been made
to improve IST for nonlinear and time-varying systems. As for
nonrobotic systems, online adaptive schemes were developed by
Tzes and Yurkovich [8] and Bodson [9]. As for robotic systems,
Rappole [10] applied a time-varying IST (TVIST) to a two-link
flexible manipulator using a lookup table. Magee and Book [11]
modified the IST to eliminate the first two modes of vibration in
a large and flexible manipulator with a configuration-dependent
inertia. Cho and Park [12] proposed a method to determine the
exact time-varying impulse sequence and applied it to a two-link
flexible robot. Additionally; there have been similar attempts to
apply the IST to various robots [13].
But these schemes require intensive computing power for
real-time computation or memory space for a frequency map.
Moreover, some schemes require an exact dynamic model of the
plant in real time. Because of the limited computing power and
memory space of industrial robots, however, it is difficult to meet
these requirements. Furthermore, it is a major work to obtain
an exact model for an industrial robot. These practical issues
have made us develop a scheme to adopt IST for an industrial
robot.
The IST we employed in this paper is an iterative learning
IST (LIST) [14], which iteratively updates the parameters of
IST based on data from previous trials. The idea central to
this approach came from our observation that most tasks of
industrial robots are planned in advance and they are repet-
itive by nature. The robot to which we apply iterative LIST
is an industrial robot which carries heavy payloads on plant
floors. Since IST and LIST were developed originally for single-
input single-output (SISO) systems, this paper deals with tech-
niques to extend the application of IST and LIST to industrial
robots that are multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems.
56 IEEE/ASME TRANSACTIONS ON MECHATRONICS, VOL. 11, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2006

TABLE I
PARAMETERS OF THE ROBOT

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the industrial robot.

Although the basic idea of LIST was already presented in [14]

with simple simulations and experiments, auxiliary techniques
are needed for LIST to be more practical. This paper, there-
fore, represents techniques for practical application of LIST
including an application strategy for MIMO systems with cou-
pling, parameter updating scheme for nonlinear time-varying
systems, and a selection method for initial guesses of IST pa-
rameters. In addition, this paper presents analytical verification
for convergence of LIST. Since vibration in the first joint is sub-
stantially large and time varying, LIST is applied only to the first Fig. 2. Model of joint flexibility.
joint and conventional IST to the second and third joints. We
use the input/output value of the first joint for the learning pro-
cess so that its nonlinear and time-varying residual vibrations Therefore, the dynamic equations are derived only for the first
can be suppressed without a dynamic model of the robot. The three joints.
experimental results of iterative LIST are compared to those of Since joint flexibility is the primary cause of robot vibration,
TVIST, and their merits and demerits are evaluated. This proce- it is included in the model. The flexibility of the ith joint is
dure can be used as a practical guideline for various industrial modeled as a torsional spring with stiffness KT i [13]. Accord-
robots other than ours. ingly, each axis also includes two joint variables representing
This paper is organized as follows. Section II describes the both motor angle (θm i ) and link angle (θi ), as shown in Fig. 2.
dynamics of the industrial robot and discusses IST application The dynamic equations for this robot are derived by using
strategy for the robot. Section III shows its nonlinear and time- Lagrange’s method and described as follows:
varying vibrations and presents the main idea and algorithm of bk 1 KT 1
the iterative LIST. Section IV describes our experimental results, M11 θ̈m 1 + bm 1 θ̇m 1 + θ̇r 1 + θr 1 = τ1 (1)
r1 r1
and discussion is followed by conclusions in Section V.
M22 θ̈1 + b1 θ̇1 − bk 1 θ̇r 1 − KT 1 θr 1 + N1 (θ, θ̇) = 0 (2)
II. UNDERSTANDING OF A ROBOT DYNAMICS FOR
bk 2 KT 2
LIST APPLICATION M33 θ̈m 2 + bm 2 θ̇m 2 + θ̇r 2 + θr 2 = τ2 (3)
r2 r2
In this section, the dynamic properties of the robot are de-
scribed in order to show the nonlinear and time-varying charac- M44 θ̈2 + M46 θ̈3 + b2 θ̇2 − bk 2 θ̇r 2 − KT 2 θr 2
teristics of the robot, and a strategy to apply IST for the robot is +N2 (θ, θ̇) + G2 (θ) = 0 (4)
presented.
bk 3 KT 3
M55 θ̈m 3 + bm 3 θ̇m 3 + θ̇r 3 + θr 3 = τ3 (5)
A. Robot Dynamics r3 r3

The industrial robot of our interest has a parallelogram-
linkage structure with six degrees of freedom (6 DOF). The
schematic diagram of the robot is shown in Fig. 1 and its esti-
mated parameters are presented in Table I. As can be expected
from the numerical values of these parameters, the robot is in-
tended for handling heavy payloads or spot welding with the
maximum payload of 120 kg.
To examine its frequency variation properties, the dynamic
equation of the robot was derived based on the schematic di-
agram depicted in Fig. 1. Note that these last three axes have
little effect on inertia variation and, thus, on frequency variation.
M64 θ̈2 + M66 θ̈3 + b3 θ̇3 − bk 3 θ̇r 3 − KT 3 θr 3
+N3 (θ, θ̇) + G3 (θ) = 0 (6)
where θr i = ( θrmi i − θi ), θ = [θ1 θ2 θ3 ]T ; and Ni (θ, θ̇) denotes
the Coriolis and centrifugal torque and Gi (θ) the gravity torque
at the ith joint; Ni (θ, θ̇)s and Gi (θ)s are shown in Appendix I.
In the equations above, it is assumed that viscous damping with
a coefficient of bm i is also present at each motor, bi at each joint,
and bk i at each torsional spring.
Under the assumption that each link has a uniform and
symmetric cross section, the elements of inertia matrix Mij (θ)s
PARK et al.: INPUT SHAPING TECHNIQUE FOR AN INDUSTRIAL ROBOT
can be expressed as the following:
M11 = Jm 1
2 2 2 2
M22 = (ma lg a + Ja + Jc )c2 + (mb lg b + Jb + Jd )c3
+ mc (lb c3 − lg c c2 )2 + md (lc c2 + lg d c3 )2
+ mP {lc c2 + (ld − lb )c3 }2
M33 = Jm 2
M44 = ma lg a 2 + Ja + mc lg c 2 + Jc + md la 2 + mP la 2 (10)
M46 = {md la lg d − mc lb lg c + mP la (ld − lb )} cos(θ2 − θ3 )
M64 = M46
M55 = Jm 3
M66 = mb lg b + Jb + mc lb + md lg d + Jd + mP (ld − lb )2
2 2 2
(14)
where lk and lg k (k = a, b, c, d), as shown in Fig. 1, denote the
length of the corresponding link and the length to the center of
gravity of the link, respectively. In the same manner, mk and
Jk represent the mass and moment of inertia of the link, respec-
tively. In addition, mP denotes the payload, attached to the end-
effector, and ci and si symbolize cos θi and sin θi , respectively.
Note in (8) and (11) that M22 and M46 vary with both θ2 and
θ3 , whereas (10) and (14) show that M44 and M66 are constant.
Owing to M22 and M46 , hence, the robot has time-varying
vibrations [15].
The vibration is not only time varying, but also nonlinear
due to robot dynamics such as nonlinear spring characteristics
of harmonic drive and friction. Moreover, nonlinear terms in
dynamic equations, such as Coriolis, centrifugal, and gravity
torque, cause nonlinear residual vibration of the robot. As an
example, let us examine N1 , which can be expressed in the
following form:
N1 (θ, θ̇) = f1 (θ2 , θ3 , θ̇2 , θ̇3 )θ˙1 . (15)
Since f1 (θ2 , θ3 , θ̇2 , θ̇3 ) is a nonlinear function, N1 (θ, θ̇) can
be regarded as a nonlinear damper with a nonlinear damping
coefficient. Therefore, we can see that the nonlinear terms in
N1 cause nonlinear residual vibration of the robot.
Due to such time-varying and nonlinear characteristics, resid-
ual vibrations of industrial robots are not well suppressed by
conventional IST, which was derived for linear time-invariant
(LTI) systems [8]–[10], [12]. To this end, we may apply mod-
ified versions of the IST technique for the robot. The authors,
however, found that, with properly tuned IST parameters, con-
ventional IST can suppress residual vibration in nonlinear and
time-varying systems [14], [16]–[18]. Since conventional IST
does not require intensive computational time or large memory
space, we employed IST to suppress the residual vibration of
the industrial robot.
B. IST Application Strategy for the Robot
The dynamic equations above clearly show that the robot is a
multivariable system. Nevertheless, the following observations
57
are drawn from the analysis of dynamic equations of the robot
and experimental verification.
(7)
1) For axes 1, 2, and 3, the variation of IST parameters in
one axis has little effect on the residual vibration of the
other two. For example, even though the IST parameters
of axis 1 are changed, the residual vibration in axes 2 and 3
(8) are affected only slightly (Appendix II).
2) Residual vibration in axis 1 is dominant while those in
(9)
axes 2 and 3 are relatively small (see Fig. 10).
Based on these observations, we have developed a strategy to
determine IST parameters as follows.
1) Apply conventional IST to axes 2 and 3. Although the
(11) residual vibrations in axes 2 and 3 are not eliminated
entirely with conventional IST, the remaining vibrations
(12)
are negligible so that conventional IST can be used in these
(13) axes without fine tuning.
2) Tune IST parameters for axis 1 by applying iterative learn-
ing algorithm.
III. ITERATIVE LEARNING INPUT SHAPING TECHNIQUE
A. IST and Measures of Residual Vibrations
The two-impulse sequence for suppression of the residual
vibration is given in the following general form:


u(s) = A1 e−T 1 s + A2 e−T 2 s r(s) (16)
where r(s) is a reference trajectory. The two-impulse sequence
u(s) has four parameters: the magnitudes of impulses A1 and
A2 , and the application time T1 and T2 . Without loss of general-
ity, T1 may be fixed to 0 for a faster response, and A2 may also
be fixed to (1 − A1 ) in order to maintain a unit gain. Then, there
remain only two independent parameters to be determined, A1
and T2 .
According to Singer and Seering’s study [3], the residual
vibrations due to the two-impulse sequence vanish if A1 and
T2 are properly selected by the following equations:
1
A1n = √ 2 (17)
1+e −ζ π /
1−ζ
π
T2n =  (18)
ωn 1 − ζ 2
where ( · )n denotes the exact values of ( · ), and ζ and ωn mean
the damping ratio and the natural frequency of the residual
vibration to be suppressed, respectively.
When A1 = A1n or T2 = T2n , however, the residual vibra-
tion does not vanish after the application time T2 . For exam-
ples, we examined the responses for four cases: T2 > T2n and
T2 < T2n for A1 = A1n , and A1 > A1n and A1 < A1n for
T2 = T2n . Fig. 3 shows the responses to the two-impulse se-
quence for these four cases. In the figure, the solid lines rep-
resent the original vibration, the unit impulse response without
IST, and the dotted lines represent the resultant responses to
the two-impulse sequence. Fig. 3(a) shows the response for the
case T2 > T2n , and Fig. 3(c) for the case T2 < T2n ; Fig. 3(b)
for the case A1 > A1n , and Fig. 3(d) for the case A1 < A1n .
Both responses show that the residual vibrations still persist and
58
Fig. 3. Responses to the two-impulse sequence with inaccurate parameters. Solid lines represent unit impulse responses; dashed lines represent the resultant
responses to the two-impulse sequence with T 2 = T 2n or A 1 = A 1n .
TABLE II
OBSERVED RANGES OF φ FOR NINE POSSIBLE CASES
that there exist phase differences from the original vibration
without IST.
In order to adopt a learning scheme for IST, we have used two
measures: the magnitude and phase difference of residual vibra-
tion. More specifically, the magnitude measure M is defined as
 tf
M≡ |ν(t)| dt (19)
ti
where ν(t) is any signal representing residual vibration such as
position, velocity, or acceleration. ti ≤ t ≤ tf is the duration
when the residual vibration is significant.
Another measure, φ, is the phase difference between the resid-
ual vibrations with and without IST. Examples of φ for improper
sets of T2 are shown in Fig. 3. When T2 is larger than the proper
value, φ has a positive value or phase lead as shown in Fig. 3(a).
On the other hand, when T2 is smaller than the proper value,
φ then has a negative value or phase lag as shown in Fig. 3(c).
Hence, by observing φ, we can determine whether an IST pa-
rameter is larger or smaller than the proper value. Table II shows
the observed ranges of φ for nine possible cases of improper A1
and T2 .
In order to put the observation above into a broader perspec-
tive, we draw the simulation plots of M and φ for two cases:
IEEE/ASME TRANSACTIONS ON MECHATRONICS, VOL. 11, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2006
with T2 varying while A1 is fixed as in Fig. 4(a); and with A1
varying while T2 is fixed as in Fig. 4(b).
Fig. 4(a) shows that the magnitude and the phase vary
in nonlinear fashions, with M having local minima at T2 =
T2n , 3T2n , 5T2n , . . . (or TT2n2 = 1, 3, 5, . . .) [19]. Accordingly,
we have restricted the limit 0 ≤ T2 ≤ 2T2n throughout the
learning process. In this region, M has only one minimum with-
out any additional local minima, thereby enabling us to apply a
function minimization method for parameter update. The range
of A1 , 0 ≤ A1 ≤ 1, is determined by (17), and Fig. 4(b) shows
that M and φ vary linearly for the range. For this reason, the
convergence of A1 has posed little difficulty.
B. Iterative Learning Scheme
The iterative learning scheme updates the IST parameters A1
and T2 by using M and φ obtained from the experiment (or
simulation) with parameters from the previous execution. The
overall algorithm is summarized as follows: With an initial guess
of A1 and T2 , update T2 first while keeping A1 fixed, until M
reaches its minimum; then update A1 with keeping T2 fixed;
alternate the updating of A1 and T2 until a satisfactory M is
obtained. The phase difference φ is examined only to determine
the update rule as explained in the next section.
1) Parameter Update: For convenience, let p denote a pa-
rameter to be updated, A1 or T2 , with pk denoting p at the kth
iteration and Mk denoting M obtained from an experiment (or
simulation) by using pk .
The iterative learning scheme is to find pn , the proper param-
eter to minimize M , which has a shape shown in Fig. 5(a). Thus,
PARK et al.: INPUT SHAPING TECHNIQUE FOR AN INDUSTRIAL ROBOT
Fig. 4. Variation of M and φ: (a) for T 2 varying with A 1 fixed, (b) for A 1 varying with T 2 fixed.
Fig. 5. The shape of M and M̃ .
updating the IST parameters may be regarded as a function min-
imization and various function minimization techniques can be
used to this end.
From a different perspective, however, the parameter updating
may be viewed as a root finding problem and various root finding
methods can be utilized for this purpose. To elaborate, define a
e M̃ as
M̃ = M sign(pn − p)
where
 1, if x > 0
sign(x) = 0, if x = 0
−1, if x < 0.
Fig. 5(b) shows M̃ as a function of p. Note that the condition,
sign(x) = 0 if x = 0, makes M̃ = 0 when p = pn , and thus we
can use root finding methods for parameter updates.
In parameter updating, we have made use of a well estab-
lished function minimization method called the golden section
search [20] in conjunction with a root finding method called the
secant method [21]. The latter was used to increase the speed of
convergence for the former.
Briefly summarizing, the golden section search is based on the
fact that a minimum can be found when there is a triplet of points,
a < b < c, such that f (b) is less than both f (a) and f (c). In this
case, the function has a minimum in the interval [a, c]. With this
idea, one can narrow down the interval by choosing a new point
d between a and b or between b and c. Let us suppose that d is
chosen between b and c. Then we know that a minimum is in
the interval [b, c] if f (d) < f (b) as in Fig. 6(a); or a minimum
is in the interval [a, d] if f (b) < f (d) as shown in Fig. 6(b). As
the process above is repeated with a new triplet b < d < c or
59
Fig. 6. (a) A minimum is in the interval [b, c] if f (d) < f (b) or (b) a minimum
is in the interval [a, d] if f (b) < f (d).
(20)
Fig. 7. If M̃ is discontinuous near p n , p k +1 obtained by (21) may be too far
from p n .
a < b < d, the interval in which f (x) has a minimum can be
narrowed down.
In the golden section search, the new point d in a given interval
is called the golden mean point since it is normally selected as
a golden mean of the given triplet [21]. Instead of using the
golden mean point method, however, the secant method is used
to increase the speed of convergence. This is possible because
we know the sign of ek from φ, where ek = pn − pk .
In the secant method, pk +1 is calculated from
M̃k
pk +1 = pk + (pk − pk −1 ) (21)
M̃k −1 − M̃k
where M̃j is the M̃ obtained from experiment or simulation
using pj .
The secant method, however, does not work well when M̃ is
not continuous near pn as shown in Fig. 7, because it assumes the
function to be smooth near the root [21]. If M̃ is discontinuous
near pn , (21) determines pk +1 far from pn as shown in Fig. 7.
60 IEEE/ASME TRANSACTIONS ON MECHATRONICS, VOL. 11, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2006

Fig. 8. p k +1 is not in the interval where M has a minimum when the parameter
is updated improperly.

Fig. 9. Experimental setups used for the LIST. The learning process is done
on the IBM-PC 486.
As a remedy to overcome this difficulty, the following con-
straint is added: (23), we can obtain the following equation to calculate pk +1 :

|pk +1 − pk | ≤ |pk − pk −1 |. (22) Mk

As a result, when M̃ is discontinuous near pn , the following
equation is used instead of (21):
 
M̃k
pk +1 = pk + (pk − pk −1 )sat (23)
M̃k −1 − M̃k
where sat(x) is a saturation function such that
 find that they still provide good initial guesses for nonlinear
x, if |x| < 1
sat(x) =
sign(x), otherwise.
We have proved that the updating scheme described thus far
makes pk converge to pn as iteration proceeds. The proof is
presented in Appendix III.
2) Updating Rule for Varying Frequencies: For some non-
linear systems, the phase difference φ is not reliable any more.
For example, a spring-mass system with a nonlinear spring vi-
brates with decreasing frequencies as the amplitude becomes
smaller, and it is of no use to measure φ between vibrations that
have different frequencies.
In the case of nonlinear systems with vibrations of varying
frequencies, therefore, we use a simple trial-error method
such as the following instead of using φ for parameter update:
Assume that both pk and pk −1 are either larger or smaller than
pn , that is, ek ek −1 > 0. Let us apply this assumption to (23)
and obtain the following equation to calculate pk +1 :
pk +1 = pk + (pk − pk −1 )
pk +1 = pk − (pk − pk −1 )sat . (25)
Mk −1 + Mk
Although this method increases the iteration numbers and
delays the convergence of M , it enables us to obtain exact pk +1
without φ.
3) Selection of Initial Parameters: The initial guesses of A1
and T2 can be calculated using Singer’s method [3]. Although
this method is derived from and intended for LTI systems, we
time-varying systems.
At the second iteration, p1 cannot be obtained by using the
updating rule mentioned above because it requires two previous
experimental results. The new updating rule for p1 is made in
the following form:
p1 = p0 − sign(e0 )p0 δ (26)
where δ denotes a heuristically determined constant less than
one. In our learning process, we use δ = 0.1 and sign(e0 ) is
obtained from the initial phase difference φ0 .
4) Condition for Minimum M : As mentioned above, we can
narrow down the interval where M has a minimum—or M̃ has a
root—through the learning process. We can say that M has con-
verged to its minimum if the interval is sufficiently small so that
pU − p L < (27)
where pU and pL denote the upper and lower bound of the
interval, respectively and the predefined error bound.

Mk sign(ek ) IV. EXPERIMENT

× sat
Mk −1 sign(ek −1 ) − Mk sign(ek )

A. Experimental Setup
Mk
= pk + (pk − pk −1 )sat . (24) Experiments were performed to verify that iterative LIST
Mk −1 − Mk
is effective for suppression of residual vibrations in a robot
If pk +1 obtained from (24) is in the interval in which M has a conducting repetitive tasks. For the experiments, the reference
minimum, 1 our assumption is confirmed to be correct, and the trajectory with its trapezoidal velocity profile was given, and
learning proceeds to the next cycle. On the contrary, if the pk +1 the results of iterative LIST were then compared to those of
is not in the interval in which M has a minimum (as shown in both conventional IST as well as TVIST based on Rappole’s
Fig. 8), it indicates that the pk +1 was not properly updated, that method [10], [15].
is, the assumption is wrong. Hence, applying ek ek −1 < 0 to The schematic diagram of the experimental setup is shown
in Fig. 9. As position controllers, proportional controllers with
inner PI velocity control loops run in a stand-alone robot con-
1 It was explained with the golden section search. troller at sampling frequency 2 kHz. An accelerometer, from
PARK et al.: INPUT SHAPING TECHNIQUE FOR AN INDUSTRIAL ROBOT
Fig. 10. Experimental results: residual vibration without IST. Note that the
robot moved for 1.35 s and the tip response after 1.35 s is the residual vibration.
PCB Piezotronics, Inc., is attached at the tip of the robot to
measure the residual vibrations of the tip.
As shown in Fig. 9, IST is implemented on the robot con-
troller, whereas the learning algorithm is carried out in the
outside controller, an IBM PC 486DX2-66. While the robot
is moving, the acceleration signals sensed by the accelerom-
eter are sent to the PC. Then the signals are read by an A/D
converter at sampling frequency 200 Hz and filtered through
a bandpass filter to filter out both drift signals and noise. The
filtered acceleration signals are stored in the PC memory. After
one cycle of motion, the PC calculates M and φ, and up-
dates the IST parameters. The values of the updated IST pa-
rameters are sent to the robot controller, and the next cycle
begins.
Prior to the application of IST filters for the robot, we ex-
amined the level of the residual vibrations without IST filters.
In these experiments, the reference trajectories were given as
S-curves with trapezoidal velocity profiles. Fig. 10 shows the
tip acceleration signal processed through a filter with a band-
width between 2–30 Hz, when only feedback control is used.
The robot traveled for 1.35 s and the tip response after 1.35 s is
regarded as the residual vibration. As is shown in the figure, the
residual vibrations in the swing direction, which were caused
by the axis 1’s movement, are substantially larger than those in
other directions.
The experiment above made us observe that the frequency of
residual vibration decreases with smaller amplitude whereas the
damping ratio remains nearly constant. The frequency variation,
in our study, is caused by both the time-varying inertia due to
change of the robot’s configuration and the nonlinear flexibility
in the harmonic drive.
In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of iterative LIST, two
other schemes of IST have been compared: conventional IST and
the TVIST based on Rappole’s method [10], [15], respectively.
They are described as follows.
1) If For adopting conventional IST to nonlinear time-varying
systems, we have designed an IST filter using the mean
value of varying frequencies.
2) If The TVIST is represented by
u(t) = A1 r(t) + A2 r(t − T2 (t)).
The second impulse varies with time, and its application
time T2 (t) is estimated in real time from the position data
of each axis.
61
Fig. 11. Experimental results. Magnitude measure M decreases as the number
of iterations increases.
Fig. 12. Tip acceleration measured in swing direction (axis 1). Both TVIST
and LIST have suppressed the residual vibrations. Note that because the robot
moved for 1.35 s, the tip acceleration after 1.35 s is the residual vibration.
B. Experimental Results
Fig. 11 shows the experimental results of the proposed iter-
ative LIST. With the initial parameters, the magnitude of the
residual vibration is quite large. As the number of iterations in-
creases, the residual vibrations become smaller and M reaches
its minimum at the sixth iteration. Note that tip acceleration is
used as ν(t) to calculate M using (19).
In Fig. 12, the results of iterative LIST are compared with
those of TVIST. LIST and TVIST reduced the peak residual
vibration to 14% and 13% of the original vibration without IST,
respectively, whereas IST reduced it only to 40%. Therefore,
the comparison displays that both iterative LIST and TVIST
have well suppressed the residual vibrations, which implies that
we can choose any of the two schemes according to application
conditions. If the real-time estimation of the varying frequency
is both possible and affordable, TVIST is applicable; if not, and
the task is repetitive, iterative LIST is suitable.
Although higher frequency vibrations exist in the transient
region, their amplitudes are very small. In our application, such
vibrations in the transient region were not important because
this robot was designed for point-to-point motion. Therefore,
we believe that LIST is useful for the repetitive tasks which
consist of point-to-point motions.
V. CONCLUSION
(28)
For suppression of nonlinear and time-varying residual
vibrations in a 6-DOF industrial robot, we have proposed an
iterative LIST which updates the parameters of IST by using
data from previous trials. Based on theoretical analysis and
62 IEEE/ASME TRANSACTIONS ON MECHATRONICS, VOL. 11, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2006

experiments, LIST is applied to the first axis of the robot and

conventional IST is applied to the second and third axes. As
a result, the application of iterative LIST become convenient
because the iterative learning scheme is applied only for the
swing axis, which exhibits significant time-varying frequencies
and large vibrational amplitudes.
Experimental results show that iterative LIST reduces the
nonlinear and time-varying residual vibrations in the robot as
effectively as TVIST does. The LIST is useful for repetitive tasks
of industrial robots where real-time estimation is not available, Fig. 13. An example of reference trajectories and responses used in simula-
whereas TVIST is effective for nonrepetitive tasks by changing tions.
the IST parameters in real time according to the estimated fre-
quency. The iterative LIST is a promising technique to suppress G3 (θ)
the nonlinear and time-varying residual vibrations in industrial
robots, which have a limited computing power and memory = {−mb lg b − mc lb + md lg d + mP (ld − lb )}c3 g
space in most cases, because it does not require real-time esti- where g denotes the gravitational acceleration constant.
mation of vibration frequencies.
APPENDIX II
APPENDIX I SIMULATION
Ni (θ, θ̇) AND Gi (θ) Simulations were performed to validate the application strat-
Ni s and Gi s in Section II are shown in the following equa- egy proposed in Section II-B with the dynamic model of (1)–(6)
tions: and parameters listed in Table I and in the following:
Jm 1 = 0.015 kg · m2 Jm 2 = Jm 3 = 0.01 kg · m2
N1 (θ, θ̇)

r1 = r2 = r3 = 100
= −2 ma lg2a c2 s2 + Ja c2 s2 − mc lg c s2 (lb c3 − lg c c2 )
KT 1 = KT 2 = KT 3 = 1.0 × 108 N · m
+ Jc c2 s2 + md lc s2 (lc c2 + lg d c3 )
b1 = b3 = 2000 N · m · s b2 = 200 N · m · s
+ mP lc s2 {lc c2 + (ld − lb )c3 }] θ˙1 θ˙2

bm 1 = bm 2 = bm 3 = 50 N · m · s
− 2 mb lg2b c3 s3 + Jb c3 s3 + mc lb s3 (lb c3 − lg c c2 )
bk 1 = bk 2 = bk 3 = 2000 N · m · s
+ md lg d s3 (lc c2 + lg d c3 ) + Jd c3 s3
where motor inertias and gear reduction ratios were given as
+ mP (ld − lb )s3 {lc c2 + (ld − lb )c3 }] θ˙1 θ˙3 robot specifications. Spring and friction constants were esti-
mated from experimental results.
N2 (θ, θ̇)
 Each joint was controlled by a proportional–integral–
= ma lg2a c2 s2 + Ja s2 − mc lb lg c c3 s2 + mc lg2c c2 s2 + Jc s2 derivative (PID) position controller, and a reference trajectory
for the PID controller was shaped by IST. Fig. 13 shows an
+ md lc2 c2 s2 + md lc lg d s2 c3 + mP lc2 c2 s2 example of reference trajectories and responses of joints in sim-
+ mP lc (ld − lb )s2 c3 } θ˙12 ulations. The inner-loop PID controller has the following form:

+ {−mc lb lg c + md la lg d + mP la (ld − lb )} τi = kP i (θdi − θi ) + kD i (θ̇di − θ̇i ) + kI i (θdi − θi ) dt
× sin(θ2 − θ3 )θ˙32
where their control gains were tuned as follows:
N3 (θ, θ̇)
 kP 1 = 12 × 106 , kP 2 = kP 3 = 24 × 106
= mb lg2b c3 s3 + Jb s3 − mc lb2 c3 s3 − mc lb lg c c2 s3 + Jd s3
kI 1 = 8 × 107 , kI 2 = kI 3 = 16 × 107
+ md lg2d c3 s3 + md lc lg d s2 s3 kD 1 = 2000, kD 2 = kD 3 = 4000.

+ mP (ld − lb ) c3 s3 + mP lc (ld − lb )c2 s3 θ˙12
2
Sampling time for all simulation was fixed to 0.5 ms.
+ {mc lb lg c − md la lg d − mP la (ld − lb )} In the first simulation the robot moved without IST and re-
sulted in large residual vibrations as shown in Fig. 14. Since the
× sin(θ2 − θ3 )θ˙22 settling time was about 0.85 s for the given trajectories (Fig. 13),
vibrations after 0.85 s are regarded as residual vibrations. The
G2 (θ)
second simulation was performed with IST that was designed
= (ma lg a + mc lg c + md la + mP la )c2 g independently for each joint based on the results of the first
PARK et al.: INPUT SHAPING TECHNIQUE FOR AN INDUSTRIAL ROBOT 63

Fig. 15. Three different cases in updating parameters.

compared with those of residual vibrations without IST. The

simulation results exhibit that the peak amplitude of residual
vibrations in axes 2 and 3 varied only by 1% to 3%, while the
IST parameter in axis 1 had a negligible effect on the residual
vibration of the other two axes.

APPENDIX III
CONVERGENCE OF LIST

Fig. 14. Residual vibrations with various IST parameters of axis 1: θi − θm i For the purpose of verifying the convergence of the proposed
after settling time (a) without IST, (b) with IST, and (c) with IST parameter updating rule, the error (p − pn ) is examined. First, the updating
variation in axis 1. Note that dashed and thick solid lines overlap each other in condition is divided into the following two cases for examina-
axes 2 and 3.
tion.
Case 1) Both pk −1 and pk are smaller or larger than pn as
TABLE III shown in Fig. 15(a).
TRAJECTORIES AND SIMULATIONS RESULTS
Case 2) Either pk −1 or pk is smaller than pn and the other is
larger than pn as shown in Fig. 15(b).
Without loss of generality, we considered a situation repre-
sented in Fig. 15(a) for Case 1. By subtracting pn from both
sides of (23), we obtain
 
M̃k
ek +1 = ek + (pk − pk −1 )sat (29)
M̃k −1 − M̃k

where ej = pj − pn . Since pk −1 < pk < pn and M̃k < M̃k −1 ,

we know that
ek < 0, pk − pk −1 > 0, M̃k −1 − M̃k > 0.
With these inequalities, (29) can be
 
M̃k
ek +1 = −|ek | + (pk − pk −1 )sat . (30)
M̃k −1 − M̃k
If pk +1 < pn as shown in Fig. 15(a-1), the following inequal-
ity is obtained from (30):
 
simulation. As shown in Fig. 14, residual vibrations in axes 2 M̃k
|ek +1 | = |ek | − (pk − pk −1 )sat < |ek |.
and 3 were reduced to 17.6% and 18.2% of the original vibration, M̃k −1 − M̃k
respectively. The next simulation was to examine the variation (31)
of residual vibrations in axes 2 and 3 with a change of IST On the other hand, if pk +1 > pn as shown in Fig. 15(a-2), the
parameters in axis 1. IST parameters in axis 1, therefore, were following inequality holds from (30):
decreased by 50% while keeping those in axes 2 and 3 constant.  
Comparing the results with those of the second simulation, we M̃k
|ek +1 | = −|ek | + (pk − pk −1 )sat
observed that there were very little differences. M̃k −1 − M̃k
More simulations were performed with various trajectories as
≤ −|ek | + (pk − pk −1 ) = −2|ek | + |ek −1 |
listed in Table III. The values summarized in the table represent
the maximum peak-to-peak amplitude of residual vibrations < |ek −1 |. (32)
64 IEEE/ASME TRANSACTIONS ON MECHATRONICS, VOL. 11, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2006

Equations (31) and (32) can be combined as follows: [5] M. Agostini, G. G. Parker, K. Groom, H. Schaub, and R. D. Robinett,
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[6] P. H. Chang and J. Park, “A concurrent design of input shaping tech-
Moreover, (33) can be represented as (34) by introducing a nique and a robust control for high-speed/high-precision control of a chip
mounter,” Control Eng. Practice, vol. 9, no. 12, pp. 1279–1285, Dec.
constant ck +1 which satisfies 0 < ck +1 < 1: 2001.
[7] J. T. Feddema et al., “Control for slosh-free motion of an open container,”
|ek +1 | < ck +1 max[|ek |, |ek −1 |]. (34) IEEE Control Syst. Mag., vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 29–36, Feb. 1997.
[8] A. Tzes and S. Yurkovich, “An adaptive input shaping control scheme for
vibration suppression in slewing flexible structures,” IEEE Trans. Contr.
In Case 2, we obtain the following equation from (21): Syst. Technol., vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 114–121, Jun. 1993.
[9] M. Bodson, “An adaptive algorithm for the tuning of two input shaping
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ek +1 = . (35) ter’s thesis, Dept. Mech. Eng., MIT, Cambridge, MA, 1992.
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to eliminate multiple modes of vibration,” in Proc. 1993 American Control
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[13] R. Kinceler and P. H. Meckl, “Corrective input shaping for a flexible-joint
M̃k −1 ek | − |M̃k ek −1  manipulator performing point-to-point motion,” in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf.
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|M̃k −1 | + |M̃k | Control Applications, 1996, pp. 391–396.
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M̃k −1 | − |M̃k 
≤ max(|ek |, |ek −1 |) 293, Jun. 2001.
|M̃k −1 | + |M̃k | [15] H. S. Park, P. H. Chang, and J. S. Hur, “Time-varying input shaping
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< ck +1 max(|ek |, |ek −1 |) (36) Robots and Systems, vol. 1, 1999, pp. 285–290.
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|ek +1 | < cM max(|ek |, |ek −1 |) (37) [19] T. Singh and S. R. Vadali, “Robust time-delay control,” Trans. ASME, J.
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where cM is a maximum value among all cj s for j = [20] W. H. Press, B. P. Flannery, S. A. Teukolsky, and W. T. Vetterling, Numer-
2, 3, . . . , ∞. By using (37), |ej | for j = 2, 3, 4, . . . , k is rep- ical Recipes in C, The Art of Scientific Computing. Cambridge, U.K.:
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resented as follows: [21] L. W. Johnson and R. D. Riess, Numerical Analysis, 2nd ed. Reading,
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|e2 | < cM eM
|e3 | < cM max(|e1 |, |e2 |) < cM eM
Juyi Park (M’02) received the B.S. degree in pro-
.. duction engineering the M.S. degree in precision en-
. gineering, and the Ph.D. degree in mechanical engi-
neering from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science
|ek | < ckM−2 eM and Technology (KAIST), Daejon, Korea, in 1991,
1993, and 2001, respectively.
where eM = max(|e0 |, |e1 |). As a result, He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University
of Texas at San Antonio from 2001 to 2002. From
lim |ek | < lim ckM−2 eM = 0. (38) 2002 to 2004, he was a Research Associate in the
k →∞ k →∞ Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer
Science, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN. Since,
In other words, pk converges to pn as iteration proceeds. 2004, he has been working on intelligent robot controllers at the Robot R&D
Institute, Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Company Ltd., Koje
City, Korea. His research interests are suppression of residual vibration in flex-
ible structures, robots for disabled people, and real-time robot controllers.
REFERENCES
[1] H. Asada, Z.-D. Ma, and H. Tokumaru, “Inverse dynamics of flexible robot
arms of trajectory control,” in Proc. Modeling and Control of Robotic Pyung-Hun Chang (S’86–M’89) was born in Pusan,
Manipulators, 1987 ASME Winter Annu. Meeting, 1987, pp. 329–336. Korea, in 1951. He received the B.S. and M.S. de-
[2] P. T. Kotnik, S. Yurkovich, and U. Ozguner, “Acceleration feedback for grees from Seoul National University (SNU), Seoul,
control of a flexible manipulator arm,” J. Robot. Syst., vol. 5, no. 3, Korea, in 1974 and 1977, respectively, and the Ph.D.
pp. 181–196, Jun. 1988. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technol-
[3] N. C. Singer and W. P. Seering, “Preshaping command inputs to reduce ogy (MIT), Cambridge, MA, in 1987, all in mechan-
system vibration,” Trans. ASME, J. Dyn. Syst. Meas. Control, vol. 112, ical engineering.
pp. 76–82, 1990. From 1984 to 1987, he was involved in a research
[4] M. Ballesteros and W. Book, “Implementation alternatives for dual rate project in the field of robotics as a Research Assis-
control systems with command shaping,” in Proc. American Control Conf., tant at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory of MIT.
2002, pp. 2285–2291. Since 1987, he has been on the faculty of and is now a
PARK et al.: INPUT SHAPING TECHNIQUE FOR AN INDUSTRIAL ROBOT
Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Korea Advanced Insti-
tute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejon, Korea. His research interests
are high accuracy/speed control with application to mechanical systems, robust
control of nonlinear plants such as robot manipulators, and task-oriented design
of robot manipulators.
Hyung-Soon Park was born in Seoul, Korea, in
1972. He received the B.S. degree in precision en-
gineering and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mechan-
ical engineering from the Korea Advanced Institute
of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejon, Korea,
in 1994, 1996, and 2004, respectively.
He is currently a Research Associate at the Re-
habilitation Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL. His
research interests include robust control algorithms,
design and control of rehabilitation robots, and tele-
operation systems.
65
Eunjeong Lee (S’88–M’94) received the B.S. de-
gree from Ajou University, Suwon, Korea, in 1986,
the M.S. degree from Northwestern University,
Evanston, IL, in 1989, and the Ph.D. degree from
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, in
1994, all in mechanical engineering.
She is currently a Visiting Professor in the Depart-
ment of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sci-
ence at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and
Technology (KAIST), Daejon, Korea. She was an
Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical
Engineering at the University of Texas at San Antonio from 2000 to 2002. Her
research interests are biomimetics at the micro/nanoscale, MEMS, intelligent
control, and superconducting renewable evergy systems.
Dr. Lee received a University of Houston/NASA Johnson Space Cen-
ter Aerospace Postdoctoral Fellowship (1996–1999) and the Workshop Ma-
terial/Product Performance Award from the 1997 International Workshop on
Superconductivity. She served the IEEE Control Stytems Society as an Asso-
ciate Editor for the Conference Editorial Board from 2000 to 2002. She is also
a member of ASME.