1. Introduction
The aero-pendulum is a widely used case study to design classical and robust control strategies for linear and non-linear systems. It comprises an arm that can rotate around its pivot, driven by the thrust produced by a coaxial contra-rotating motorized propeller affixed at its free end [
1,
2]. It is considered to be a non-linear system, which can be linearized once all the parameters and functionality are known. Among the classic control systems are Proportional–Integral–Derivative (PID) controllers that work efficiently in linear systems [
3,
4]. For non-linear systems, adjustments must be made to the control algorithms to suppress the inherent non-linearities of the system [
5]. Over time, engineers have proposed solutions for the PID controllers using auto-tune strategies to correct the steady-state error. These strategies have shown promising results in changing systems, even in the control of non-linear systems [
6].
On the other hand, different techniques have been applied for advanced control strategies like state-space controllers, optimal controllers, artificial neural networks, sliding mode controllers, and fuzzy logic [
7,
8]. Fuzzy controllers have been developing exponentially in increasingly complex applications. However, the structure of this type of controller has been adapted to the needs of the current systems, making fuzzy controllers more robust and more efficient, combining methodologies so that the controllers are appropriately adapted to the systems to be controlled [
9,
10,
11]. For instance, fuzzy logic and artificial neural network controllers are used when the mathematical model of the system under observation is impossible to obtain and even when the system is inherently non-linear [
12]. All these techniques have been combined with metaheuristic algorithms to improve their performance and identify unknown system parameters. Metaheuristic algorithms are optimization techniques to solve complex computational problems when the classical methods tend to fail. Regarding control engineering problems, metaheuristics algorithms obtain specific system parameters, such as identification [
13,
14]. Another aspect could be that, in the case of the PID controller, it is necessary to know the model to optimize the controller gains carried out with the proposed design brief [
15,
16]. The convergence of metaheuristic algorithms with control methodologies has experienced notable expansion, primarily propelled by advancements in computational power. Numerous examples illustrate the fusion of control methodologies with optimization algorithms, underscoring the synergistic potential of integrating these domains to address intricate engineering challenges with enhanced efficiency. For example, an identification method was developed by [
17] to obtain local linear models and enable the design of automatic controllers using linear matrix inequalities. For modern control combined with fuzzy logic strategies applied to an aero-pendulum, the authors of [
18] proposed an observer-based fuzzy regulator for stabilization and tracking control. The observer is designed for operating points using linear matrix inequality. Also, the equilibrium states of a reduced-order non-linear plant model are shifted to the origin. Subsequently, the model is converted into a Takagi–Sugeno fuzzy model utilizing the sector non-linearity method. The research detailed in [
19] proposes an advancement strategy for an aero-pendulum control system, offering a comprehensive approach to addressing position control and disturbance compensation. Integrating a multi-loop feedback control mechanism with PID and PI controllers demonstrates a refined capability to maintain precise arm positioning, crucial for various applications ranging from experimental research to industrial automation. Additionally, utilizing the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm to determine optimal PID controller gains underscores the innovative nature of the proposed strategy, offering a systematic and efficient means to enhance the system performance. Furthermore, the authors in [
20] reported the performance of classical and adaptive backstepping control schemes for the angular position control of an aero-pendulum where a PSO algorithm is utilized to tune the design parameters of the controllers. The Classical and Adaptive Back-Stepping Controllers have been developed based on Lyapunov stability analysis to establish the convergence of the system’s error over time. They report only the simulation results in Matlab.
This work combines the Hunting Search (HuS) algorithm with fuzzy logic to control an aero-pendulum. Several works have used the HuS algorithm to solve problems related to control engineering [
21]. For instance, the authors in [
22] validate through simulations the effectiveness of a Multi-Input Fuzzy PID (MIFPID) controller for Automatic Generation Control (AGC) in a two-area interconnected power system, comparing it with two single-input FPID (SIFPID-1 and SIFPID-2) controllers. The objective function incorporates frequency undershoot, overshoot, and settling time, with each controller implemented separately in both areas. They propose the Modified Group Hunting Search optimization (MGHS) algorithm to optimize the controller gain parameters, addressing a multi-objective problem with constraints. Performance evaluations are conducted with a
load disturbance in area-1, showing that the MIFPID controller optimized by the MGHS algorithm outperforms the others in the system studied. On the other hand, [
23] presents an approach of utilizing the HuS algorithm to fine-tune a Takagi–Sugeno–Kang-type neuro-fuzzy model. It encodes the fuzzy model’s structure and parameters into particles, enabling simultaneous optimization.
In this paper, we introduce a novel approach to adaptive fuzzy control. Our methodology involves optimizing the membership functions utilized in both the fuzzification and defuzzification stages using the HuS algorithm. The aim is to employ this optimized fuzzy controller to effectively regulate an aero-pendulum, which tracks a parabolic motion profile as its set point. This innovative technique promises to enhance the control precision and adaptability, offering potential applications in various domains requiring robust and flexible control systems.
This paper is organized as follows:
Section 2 presents the background on the dynamics of an aero-pendulum, fuzzy systems, motion profiles, and the HUS algorithm.
Section 3 describes the materials used in the experimentation and outlines the methodology followed during the experimentation.
Section 4 and
Section 5 contain the results and discussion, respectively.
Section 6 contains the conclusion and references.
3. Materials and Methods
The fuzzy controller developed in this paper is a PID fuzzy controller, a compound of three separate parts: the proportional, derivative, and integral. Each part has its separate fuzzy system with three different sub-systems; each will calculate the correspondent gain: the
,
, and
. These values are calculated depending on the values of the derivative and integral errors. Once each part has been calculated, the following procedure is to add them together to create the controller response that will go directly to the system. In this PID fuzzy controller, the HuS algorithm will focus on fuzzy systems in charge of obtaining the proper gains, as shown in
Figure 5, where the main goal is to obtain more suitable values. This controller references Equation (
12), the classical PID controller. The parameters modified within the controller are proportional, derivative, and integral gains (
,
,
), which change in real time, meaning that these gains do not stay static. The consequential values of these gains are determined by the input error present in the system, meaning that, in different error situations, the gains will behave differently; on the contrary, in classical controllers, the gains stay permanently static.
Because the applied controller is a PID, the closed-loop poles of the system are found in Equation (
13).
To ensure the stability of the system, it is considered that , , are taken into account based on an analysis by Routh Hourwitz.
The PID fuzzy controller proposed is fixed by 12 rules, as shown in
Table 2. These rules describe the control of the aero-pendulum test bench.
The fuzzification stage is developed using three linguistic variables: the error measured in degrees, the error derivative measured in degrees per second, and the integral error measurement. Each linguistic variable is expressed by two triangular and two trapezoidal linguistic values: the trapezoidal would indicate the larger positive and negative values of error (MP and N). One triangular value is positioned in zero to demonstrate the absence of zero (Z), and the last triangle indicates the minor presence of error (P). The triangular membership function is presented in Equation (
14), and the trapezoidal membership function is displayed in Equation (
15).
where
and
represent the start (left slope) and end (right slope), respectively, of the
i-th triangular and trapezoidal membership functions and the
is the core point of the membership function,
x is the input of the fuzzy system. The HuS algorithm has to find the best position for the parameters of the triangular membership functions. For the case of the error linguistic variable, the algorithm has to find ten optimized parameters related to the slopes and three optimized parameters for the centers, as presented in
Figure 6a. The same process occurs for the error derivative linguistic variable, shown in
Figure 6b.
There is a set of gains for each fuzzy system, with the controller having three different total, illustrated in
Figure 7. There are four different singletons located in a range used as a restriction of the gains; the names of these singletons are N (negative), Z (zero), SP (small positive), and MP (much positive). These values are related to their corresponding linguistic variables from
Figure 6 that have similar names. It is important to note that the proposed values of the gains are greater than zero since the gains of a classical PID controller must be greater than zero to ensure stability.
To compute the gains of controllers
,
, and
, the centroid method displayed in Equation (
16) is used.
Once all the parameters (hunters) are identified, the HuS algorithm is implemented to find these parameters of the PID fuzzy controller based on the mathematical model of the aero-pendulum and the motion profile as the reference. The flowchart,
Figure 8, presents the overall process to find the best solution for the gains of the controller. In the first step, the initialization of the HuS algorithm parameters is proposed according to
Section 2.4. The random initialization of the hunters is carried out in step 2. Equation (
17) represents the first group of hunters. The hunters are uniformly distributed in the search area.
The fitness function for evaluating the hunters’ position is the root mean square error (RMSE) detailed in Equation (
18). The HuS algorithm finds membership function parameters to minimize the Euclidean distance between the reference and the computed response.
where
and
are the desired value and the computed measured in the
i-th iteration, respectively, and
n is the total number of iterations. Once the fitness function is evaluated, the hunters with the best position are preserved to accommodate their position into the loop. Steps 3 to 5 reorganize the hunters, evaluate Equation (
18), and save the best hunters for step 6. Step 6 is the enhancement proposed. This phase evaluates the hunters to ensure the overlapping of the membership functions.
In this work, the concept of overlapping holds significant importance as it enables the inclusion of an appropriate control surface. It is widely acknowledged that, when the membership functions of a linguistic variable fail to interact, dead zones may arise, leading to situations where the actuator receives no signal from the controller or experiences instability. Therefore, adequate overlapping can mitigate the risk of such dead zones and ensure smooth and stable control system operation. This emphasizes the critical role of overlapping in achieving effective and reliable control in various applications. Step seven guarantees that all membership functions interact properly by randomly moving the hunters in the range of the overlapping. For instance, using
and
from
Figure 6a, some hunters of column
are smaller than
, when
is supposed to be smaller than each hunter in
; the algorithm provides a chance to the hunters that do not carry out this assertion to pass to the successive movements since they present a linguistic value interaction. Still, if this assertion is the opposite, the hunters in
reorganize in the interval
using Equation (
19).
where
is the hunter that moves between the core membership function
and the left/right slope if the membership function
is triangular or trapezoidal.
finds a uniformly random number among
and
. The parameter
plays a critical role in determining the movement behavior of hunters within the defined overlap area. Representing a real number within the
range,
is the hunter movement factor, dictating the magnitude of steps taken during the hunting process. When
approaches the lower bound of
, hunters are inclined to proceed cautiously with smaller steps, exhibiting a more conservative approach to navigation. Conversely, as
approaches the upper bound of
, hunters adopt a more assertive stance, traversing the terrain with larger strides. This distinction in movement strategy, dictated by the value of
, underscores its significance in optimizing hunting behaviors within the specified overlap region.
5. Discussion
In this section, two cases will be discussed: the comparison of the PID fuzzy controller with a step input, compared with a Mamdani controller that was designed with 36 rules for the aero-pendulum, and, second, the response of the PID fuzzy controller with the trajectory will be discussed, including a third-degree polynomial with a duration of 7 s, varying the set point to show that the system responds to any target position.
In
Figure 19, a comparative examination between the adaptive and non-adaptive fuzzy controllers, implemented using the HuS algorithm, is presented. The PID fuzzy controller was compared with a Mamdani controller that was provided a step input. The fuzzy controller using the Mamdani inference method was designed from 36 rules; this controller tends to consume too many computational resources because all 36 rules must be evaluated to calculate the control signal. This controller presents aggressive oscillations when it has not been optimized. The optimization carried out as a test of the operation of the HuS algorithm has to find 29 optimization parameters. These parameters correspond to the membership functions of the fuzzification stage and the positions of the singletons of the defuzzification stage. When optimized, the Mamdani fuzzy controller considerably reduces the oscillations and settling time. However, the PID fuzzy controller presents a better response, with a considerable overshoot and a significant improvement in the steady-state error with a settling time of 1.45 s, less than either version of the Mamdani fuzzy controller with 5 s for the non-optimized one and 3.2 s for the optimized one. The PID fuzzy controller was designed with a total of 12 rules to calculate the gains
,
, and
, using one-to-one fuzzy relationships, which means that the calculation of the gains is computed directly using Equation (
16), which entails a lower computational cost when compared to the Mamdani controller.
With the third-degree polynomial trajectory, regarding the parabolic motion profile,
Figure 20a shows three adaptive PID fuzzy controller signals. In each signal, the controller follows different trajectories, one for a settlement at 80 degrees, the second at 90 degrees, and the third at 100 degrees; every trajectory settles at 7 s. A higher settlement position makes the trajectory change faster, meaning each signal faces different magnitudes of change. For the 80-degree trajectory, the magnitude of change is lower than the other two; meanwhile, the 100-degree trajectory faces a major quantity of change, making it more difficult to track.
Examining the error patterns illustrated in
Figure 20b, it provides valuable insights into the efficacy of the response of the controller across different trajectories. Notably, when comparing the trajectories reaching 80 and 90 degrees, a striking similarity in error presence is observed, characterized by an acceptable level of deviation and commendable settlement behavior. This consistency suggests the robust performance of the controller in maintaining the desired positions within these ranges. However, upon closer inspection of the trajectory aimed at 100 degrees, a slightly heightened error level becomes apparent, surpassing that observed in the other trajectories. Despite this, the controller exhibits adaptive and responsive behavior, compensating for the increased error magnitude, particularly in the rapid trajectory changes and beyond the analysis of the error behavior.
Figure 20c provides a more comprehensive view of the controller’s dynamic response across the entire error spectrum. By visualizing the controller’s actions concerning varying degrees of error, these supplementary data enhance the understanding of its adaptive capabilities and ability to navigate diverse operating conditions effectively. Overall, the combination of error analysis and controller behavior visualization offers a comprehensive assessment of the controllers’ performance, showing their robustness and adaptability in achieving precise trajectory tracking in dynamic environments.
Table 9 presents the RMSE values obtained from the tests conducted with the optimized and non-optimized controllers, as depicted in
Figure 12 and
Figure 20, respectively. The RMSE is used to conduct a more general comparison between the response of the controller and, in that way, obtain a better conclusion. The non-optimized controller ended up with an RMSE of 0.54; meanwhile, the optimized controller, submitted to different tests, ended up with a lower RMSE than the non-optimized one. The comparison in the table unequivocally demonstrates that the optimized controller exhibits a superior performance compared to its non-optimized counterpart. This outcome validates the efficacy of the optimization methodology proposed in this paper, underscoring its success in enhancing the controller’s responsiveness and accuracy in trajectory-tracking tasks.
The HuS algorithm presents a good response in the optimization process of the fuzzy controller, as shown in
Table 10. The methodology proposed in this paper shows better results than those presented in Refs. [
19,
20], where a PSO algorithm is utilized. The analysis of an aero-pendulum is presented in [
20]. The methodology is well-described, with two parameters to optimize being proposed for a backstepping controller. The paper demonstrates good results; for instance, the number of iterations is 18, the settling time is 0.5 s, and the steady error is 0 degrees. This methodology only includes the simulated results, creating a large panorama if the implementation is carried out since, in many cases, some inherent characteristics of the system are not considered.
In contrast, the study referenced in [
19] introduces a comprehensive control scheme featuring a PID position controller, feed-forward mechanism, and a PI current component. Specifically tailored for an aero-pendulum system equipped with two propellers, the PID controller undergoes optimization through a PSO algorithm. Notably, developing a rigorous mathematical model facilitates a deeper understanding of the system dynamics, particularly treating the two propellers as single entities to streamline the analysis and design. Remarkably, the study yields promising outcomes, with the authors optimizing their proposal using 12 parameters. Despite the inherent complexity of the control scheme and the system dynamics, the convergence process is reported to require a manageable 32 iterations in the best-case scenario, showcasing the efficiency of the optimization approach. Furthermore, the experimental validation of the proposed control scheme corroborates its effectiveness, with a settling time of
s and a steady-state error of
degrees reported. These findings underscore the practical viability of the control scheme in real-world applications, providing tangible evidence of its ability to achieve the desired performance metrics under experimental conditions.
The methodology proposed in this paper focuses on optimizing a fuzzy controller, achieving remarkable results with efficiency. By employing only five iterations and targeting thirty-six parameters for optimization, the approach demonstrates an excellent process that minimizes the computational overhead while maximizing the effectiveness. Central to the methodology is using a parabolic motion profile to define the settling time. Specifically, a settling time of 7 s is adopted as a default value within this framework, providing a balance between a rapid response and stability. Notably, the flexibility of the methodology allows the users to adjust the settling time according to the specific application requirements, offering adaptability to diverse scenarios and preferences. The experimental validation of the proposed method underscores its efficacy, as evidenced by the achieved steady-state error of only 0.28 degrees. This impressive degree of precision highlights the robustness and reliability of the optimized fuzzy controller, showcasing its potential for real-world implementation and practical impacts.
6. Conclusions
The implementation of fuzzy control systems may be considered confusing at times because of the lack of specific parameters for correctly proposing the fuzzy rules and the ignorance of the system’s dynamics. Consequently, this normally results in erratic fuzzy systems that create inadequate behaviors that must be controlled.
The proposed solution is a method that helps to optimize unstable fuzzy systems by formulating more suitable fuzzy parameters. The technique used was an HuS algorithm that analyzes the parameters provided by the membership functions for multiple iterations until it finds the best generation or results for the fuzzy system. The HuS algorithm ensures that the membership functions overlap so the controller does not present discontinuities. This process enables the creation of new parameters from those calculated in moving toward the leader, cooperation between the members, and reorganizing the hunting group processes, causing the search to be carried out using the values that do not meet the present conditions and generating the new ones in a heuristic way. In this way, it is assured that the testing will succeed.
In this paper, an aero-pendulum system is used, and a PID fuzzy controller is designed by experimentation so that the system can follow a trajectory; following this, the HuS optimizer will be used to improve this controller. The results detailed in the articles demonstrate that this method is reliable and functional thanks to the improvements obtained by a decrease of 26 percent in the error in the new and improved controller. The use of heuristic algorithms to generate fuzzy systems and improve them may be useful not only due to the enhancement of the response from the controller but also to facilitate the creation of these systems by making them more accurate, reducing the time in the design process according to the tuning specification.