Competition of motor controllers using a simplified robot leg: PID vs fuzzy logic

This research presents a simulation and optimization environment for developing motor controllers. There are various type of controllers which may provide better or worse performance for the intended use. Our fuzzy controller was developed and optimized in order to ensure better control performance and to protect the walking robot's electromechanical equipment against high peaks or jerks. This fuzzy controller was compared to a simple PID controller to show its advantage. Both controllers were optimized and competed on the same test situations. The control performance robustness against the motor and load parameters are evaluated. A simplified robot leg model was used to ensure a realistic load for the motor driving, instead of the full robot dynamic model because of its fast calculation. The developed fuzzy controller resulted better performance and robustness compared to the optimized PID.