316 IEEE/ASME TRANSACTIONS ON MECHATRONICS, VOL. 18, NO.

1, FEBRUARY 2013
A Direct Method of Adaptive FIR Input Shaping for
Motion Control With Zero Residual Vibration
Matthew O. T. Cole and Theeraphong Wongratanaphisan
AbstractIn this paper, we describe a method of adaptive feed-
forward control that can achieve zero residual vibration in rest-to-
rest motion of a vibratory system. When a nite impulse response
lter is used to preshape a command input, zero residual vibration
is achieved for any input signal if the impulse response of the lter
satises a condition of orthogonality with respect to the impulse
response of the system under control. An equivalent condition in-
volving sets of measured I/O data is derived that forms the basis of
a direct method of adaptively tuning lter coefcients during mo-
tion. The approach requires no prior model of the system and can
be applied to multimode and multiinput systems under arbitrary
and nonrepetitive motions. Versions of the algorithm employing
recursive least-squares techniques are developed and analyzed. As
a special case of the general adaptation problem, tuning of impulse-
based shapers with xed impulse timings can also be achieved. An
experimental implementation on a two-link rigid-exible manipu-
lator is presented. The method is thereby shown to be realizable
and effective for real-world motion control problems.
Index TermsAdaptive control, exible structure, input shap-
ing, motion control, vibration control.
I. INTRODUCTION
C
OMMAND preshaping or input shaping can be usefully
applied to achieve zero residual vibration (ZRV) in rest-to-
rest motion of exible structures, robots, mechanisms, and other
vibration-prone systems. Rather than involving an ofine con-
struction of the command prole (e.g., as in [1]), the technique is
used to modify a command input online to ensure that once the
command reaches a terminal condition, then residual excitation
of vibratory modes is canceled in nite time. This must be done
in such a way that the effect on the overall motion of the system
is preserved. The established concept of input shaping in motion
control involves impulse-based shaping [2][6]. Amore general
discrete-time nite impulse response (FIR) ltering can achieve
these same goals, but the increased design freedom allows for
lter solutions with lower quadratic (H
2
) gain and improved
high-frequency ltering properties [7]. A key feature of both
these techniques is that the settling time of the system is xed
by the length of the lter/impulse sequence. Also, the only re-
quired model parameters are natural frequencies and damping
ratios for the system modes.
Manuscript received January 2, 2011; revised March 21, 2011, June 9, 2011,
and August 26, 2011; accepted October 22, 2011. Date of publication December
2, 2011; date of current version September 12, 2012. Recommended by Tech-
nical Editor J. M. Berg.
The authors are with Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand
(e-mail: motcole@chiangmai.ac.th; twongrat@chiangmai.ac.th).
Color versions of one or more of the gures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TMECH.2011.2174373
In the basic form, input shaping involves a model-based open-
loop LTI operation on a command input. Consequently, the main
limiting factor for performance is model accuracy. Various ap-
proaches to improving robustness to model errors have been
considered, e.g., [2], [4], [9]. However, this either requires an in-
crease in the shaper duration, and corresponding increase in the
settling time, or the introduction of negative impulses, which in-
curs the risk of exciting unknown high-frequency modes [7], [8].
Clearly, there is scope to improve performance by adapting
the shaper according to measurements of actual vibration. The
drawback is the need for additional sensors and increased con-
troller complexity. However, this may be weighed against the
potential benets in controlling systems with unknown or time-
varying dynamics.
One approach to adaptive input shaping is to use systemiden-
tication methods, where the shaping lter is tuned to match a
required design that is already known as a function of identi-
able parameters in the system transfer function. A frequency-
domain identication scheme was rst proposed to adjust time
separation of shaper impulses [10]. Time-domain identication
schemes have also been considered that are computationally less
demanding [11][13]. How such schemes can be successfully
applied to multimode systems, particularly, when measurement
noise is signicant, is still an open question. Other time-domain
schemes include learning algorithms that adapt according to
measured residual vibration [14][16]. These schemes avoid
explicit identication of model parameters but are formulated
by assuming single-mode characteristics for the residual vibra-
tion. The direct adaptive input-shaping (DAIS) method of Rhim
and Book [13], [17] is also based on measurement of residual
vibration but has the distinction of being directly applicable to
multimode systems. This is achieved by including a sufcient
number of impulses in the shaper sequence and adjusting only
amplitudes; ZRV can then be attained with arbitrary impulse
timings.
The adaptive control method in this paper is based on the
generalized FIR input-shaping approach. First, the model-based
ZRV orthogonality conditions given in [7] are transformed
to an equivalent condition involving sets of system I/O data,
as described in Section II. The DAIS technique presented in
Section III is born out of an iterative scheme for recalculation
of a lter solution as more I/O data become available. A main
distinction from previous direct methods [13][17] is that adap-
tation can occur prior to measurement of actual residual vibra-
tion and repetition of maneuvers is not required. Furthermore,
through application of a modied recursive least-squares (RLS)
algorithm, convergence to an optimal quadratic lter solution
can be achieved. Simulation results focusing on noise effects
1083-4435/$26.00 2011 IEEE
COLE AND WONGRATANAPHISAN: DIRECT METHOD OF ADAPTIVE FIR INPUT SHAPING FOR MOTION CONTROL 317
Fig. 1. Adaptive ltering of a command signal to drive a vibratory system.
are presented in Section IV. Experimental results are given in
Section V. In Section VI, conclusions are given.
II. SYNTHESIS OF FIR INPUT-SHAPING FILTERS GIVING ZRV
A. ZRV Orthogonality Condition
Consider a discrete time FIR lter H of order K connected
in series with a stable linear system G with innite-duration
impulse response, i.e., g = {g
0
, g
1
, g
2
, . . .}. The input shaper H
has the impulse response h = {h
0
, h
1
, . . . , h
K
}, which is the
target of optimization/adaptation, while Gand I formthe system
under control, as shown in Fig. 1. The system I represents the
overall dynamics of the target object, for which the output p is an
overall motion state and the actual target for control. The output
of Gis a vibratory state that depends on u but is unrelated to the
overall motion of the target object. The input-shaping approach
requires the determination of a lter H that ensures that when
the command/reference input r reaches and remains zero, or
some steady-state value, the output y reaches and remains zero
in nite time. This will be referred to as the ZRV condition. The
assumption here is that by driving the state y to zero, unwanted
vibration components in the position state p are also eliminated.
The output y occurring in response to a command signal r
is given by the convolution y = f r, where f = g h is the
impulse response of the overall system. Following an arbitrary
command input r of a nite duration L
r
, the ZRV condition,
i.e., y
n
= 0, n > L
r
+L
f
, is achieved if h is chosen such that
f has a nite duration L
f
:
f
n
= 0, n L
f

K

k=0
g
nk
h
k
= 0, n L
f
. (1)
This requires that the impulse response series h
k
and g
nk
are orthogonal for all shifts n L
f
. If G has no delayed direct
feedthrough, then the orthogonality condition can be considered
for n L
f
= K + 1. For a nite number of shifts K + 1
n N, the resulting ZRVcondition can be written in the matrix
form as

N
h = 0

N
=
_

_
g
K+1
g
K
. . . g
1
g
K+2
g
K+1
. . . g
2
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
g
N
g
N1
. . . g
NK
_

_
, h =
_

_
h
0
h
1
.
.
.
h
K
_

_
. (2)
The matrix
N
, whether formed from direct measurement, sys-
tem modeling, or identication procedures, can be used for syn-
thesizing an FIR input shaper h. However, in the next section,
it is shown that a direct synthesis of h satisfying (2) can also be
achieved using a general set of I/O data.
B. Direct Synthesis From I/O Data
Consider the following matrix description of I/O mappings
for G, derived from the convolution sum formula:
_

_
y
N
y
N1
. . . y
NK
y
N1
y
N2
. . . y
NK1
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
y
K+1
y
K
. . . y
1
y
K
y
K1
. . . y
0
_

_
=
_

_
u
N
u
N1
. . . u
NK
u
N1
u
N2
. . . u
NK1
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
u
K+1
u
K
. . . u
1
u
K
u
K1
. . . u
0
_

_
_

_
g
0
0 . . . 0
g
1
g
0
. . . 0
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
g
K
g
K1
. . . g
0
_

_
+
_

_
u
NK1
u
NK2
. . . u
0
u
NK2
u
NK3
. . . 0
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
u
0
0 . . . 0
0 0 . . . 0
_

_
g
K+1
g
K
. . . g
1
g
K+2
g
K+1
. . . g
2
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
g
N
g
N1
. . . g
NK
_

_
which can be written more concisely as
Y
N
= U
N
+V
N

N
. (3)
For a dataset of some length N K + 1 + 2M, where M is
the number of vibratory modes involved in the I/O mapping
(implying rank
N
= 2M), it follows from(3) that if h satises
the ZRV orthogonality condition, i.e.,
N
h = 0, then
Y
N
h U
N
h = V
N

N
h = [0]
[N+1K]1
. (4)
Noting that h = f = [ f
0
f
1
. . . f
K
]
T
, it follows that
Y
N
h U
N
f = 0. (5)
For a given set of I/O data, f = h will satisfy (5), whenever

N
h = 0. However, under certain rank conditions relating to
the choice of input signal, the existence of a vector f satisfying
(5) for a given h is a necessary and sufcient condition for
318 IEEE/ASME TRANSACTIONS ON MECHATRONICS, VOL. 18, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2013

N
h = 0. This ZRV condition, formulated in terms of I/O data,
is a direct consequence of the following theorem.
Theorem 1: Given two matrices
Y
N
=
_

_
y
N
y
N1
. . . y
NK
y
N1
y
N2
. . . y
NK1
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
y
K
y
K1
. . . y
0
_

_
U
N
=
_

_
u
N
u
N1
. . . u
NK
u
N1
u
N2
. . . u
NK1
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
u
K
u
K1
. . . u
0
_

_
where
rank[ Y
N
U
N
] = K + 1 + 2M
and y R
N+1
, u R
N+1
satisfy y = g u, where g is the im-
pulse response of a causal delay-free system having 2M modal
components, then h R
K+1
gives a nite duration f = g h
if and only if there exists x R
K+1
such that
Y
N
h +U
N
x = 0. (6)
In this case,
f
n
=
_
x
n
, 0 n K
0, n > K
_
.
Proof: According to the rank condition on [ Y
N
U
N
]
R
[N+1]2(K+1)
, there exists a set of L = K + 1 2M linearly
independent solutions
_
h
x
_
i
to the equation
[ Y
N
U
N
]
_
h
x
_
= 0. (7)
Substituting Y
N
from (3) gives
V
N

N
h +U
N
(h +x) = 0. (8)
Therefore, the equation
[ V
N

N
U
N
]
_
h
z
_
= 0 (9)
has a corresponding set of L solutions
_
h
z
_
i
=
_
I 0
I
__
h
x
_
i
.
As g has 2M modal components and no delays, then rank
N
=
2M, and so, the equation
N
h = 0 also has L linearly indepen-
dent solutions for h. These solutions for h, together with z = 0,
are the complete set of solutions to (9) and thus give the complete
set of solutions to (7). This direct correspondence of solutions
implies that there is x satisfying (6) only if
N
h = 0, and in
which case, it is given by x = h = g h = f.
Theorem 1 provides a means to calculate a solution for h
directly from I/O data simply by nding a solution pair (h, x)
that satises (6). The condition that [ Y
N
U
N
] has the max-
imum possible rank of K + 2M + 1 requires that the input
signal contains components that excite all the system modes.
Note that this requirement can still be satised for input sig-
nals that already achieve ZRV as modes can be excited during
transients. Although knowledge of the dynamics embedded in
g is not necessary for synthesis, approximate values for natural
frequencies may be useful for selecting a suitable duration for
the input shaper.
C. Extension to MIMO Systems
Multi-input multi-output (MIMO) versions of the direct syn-
thesis follow in a straightforward manner. Consider, for illus-
tration, a system having two input signals that excite vibratory
modes observable in measurement signal channel z
(k)
, where k
is the channel index. The relevant two-input versions of (3) is
Y
(k)
N
= U
(1)
N

(k1)
+V
(1)
N

(k1)
N
+U
(2)
N

(k2)
+V
(2)
N

(k2)
N
.
(10)
Quantities here relate to each input channel as indicated in the
superscript. If both inputs can excite the same modes, then
orthogonality to
(k1)
N
and
(k2)
N
are equivalent, and so, the
same lter can be applied on each input channel:

(k1)
N
h = 0,
(k2)
N
h = 0. (11)
Equations (10) and (11) lead to
_
V
(1)
N
V
(2)
N

(k1)
N

(k2)
N
_
h
= Y
(k)
N
h U
(1)
N

(k1)
h U
(2)
N

(k2)
h = 0. (12)
The corresponding condition for ZRV, in terms of I/O data, is
the existence of (x
(k1)
, x
(k2)
) satisfying
Y
(k)
N
h +U
(1)
N
x
(k1)
+U
(2)
N
x
(k2)
= 0. (13)
This follows from the same line of argument as given for
Theorem 1, i.e., the complete set of L = K + 1 2M solu-
tions (h, x
(k1)
, x
(k2)
) satisfying (13) are those for which h sat-
ises
(k1)
N
h = 0,
(k2)
N
h = 0. The rank condition that must
be satised in this case is that rank
_
Y
(k)
N
U
(1)
N
U
(2)
N

=
2(K + 1) + 2M. With multiple output measurement signals, a
set of equations in (13), one for each measurement channel, can
be considered for which a common solution for h must be found.
D. Exact Solutions
For sufciently large lter order K, there will be no unique
solution to (6), and so, additional specications may be consid-
ered. These may relate to additional control requirements, such
as bounds on control signals or on lter gains, required settling
time, etc. Model-based designs, where combinations of these re-
quirements were considered, with solutions based on (1), were
presented in [7]. Usually, design requirements for h will include
the normalization condition
K

k=0
h
k
= 1. (14)
This ensures that steady-state values of the lter input and output
signals are equal and that the total area is conserved (

u =
COLE AND WONGRATANAPHISAN: DIRECT METHOD OF ADAPTIVE FIR INPUT SHAPING FOR MOTION CONTROL 319

r). Condition (14) thereby helps to ensure that the net effect of
a command input, in terms of the overall motion of the controlled
object, is preserved. When h
k
are all nonnegative, condition
(14) also ensures that peak absolute values of the shaped input
signal u never exceed the peak absolute values of the unshaped
command r, which is a useful characteristic when there are
limits for control input signals that should not be exceeded.
To ensure condition (14) is satised, the lter impulse re-
sponse can be formed as
h = Tw +b. (15)
Here, b is a predetermined vector given by
b =
1
K + 1
_
_
1
.
.
.
1
_
_
[K+1]1
(16)
and T R
[K+1]K
is an orthogonal complement of b so that
K

k=0
h
k
= (K + 1) b
T
h = (K + 1) b
T
b = 1. (17)
The vector w R
K
parameterizes the remaining design free-
dom. If T is chosen such that T
T
T = I, then
h
T
h = (Tw +b)
T
(Tw +b) = w
T
w +b
T
b (18)
and so, the norm of h and w have the simple correspondence
h
2
= w
2
+
1
K+1
.
Considering (15) in (6) and dening the error in (6) as the
ZRV error prediction e = {e
0
, e
1
, . . . , e
N
} give
e = [ Y
N
T U
N
]
_
w
x
_
+Y
N
b (19)
which implies that an ideal lter solution would achieve e = 0.
If the matrix Y
N
is constructed from measured signal data, it
may be subject to noise, disturbances, measurement error, and
the possibility that plant behavior is not perfectly linear. In
such cases, we cannot expect [Y
N
U
N
] to be rank decient,
and so, a solution giving e = 0 is implausible. This issue is the
main consideration when constructing a solution from I/O data,
whether ofine froma batch of data or within a real-time adapta-
tion algorithm. For the ofine calculation, it should be possible
to separate the components of the matrix [Y
N
T U
N
] associ-
ated with the system dynamics from those due to noise/error.
For example, the solution may be constructed from the rst
(K + 1 + 2M) dominant components obtained by a singular-
value decomposition P = [Y
N
T U
N
] = UV
T
. In the ideal
case, the diagonal matrix, i.e., = diag{
1
,
2
, . . . ,
2K+1
},
contains only K + 1 + 2M nonzero singular values, and thus,
a reduced order construction has the form P = U V
T
, where
only K + 1 + 2M rows/columns have been retained. The so-
lution that minimizes e and for which w
2
+y
2
takes the
minimum value follows as
_
w
x
_
= V
1
U
T
Y
N
b. (20)
This solution is similar to the minimum quadratic (H
2
) gain
shaper presented in [7] except that it is optimal in the sense
that the combined quadratic cost h
2
+f
2
is minimized,
rather than only h
2
. The quadratic gain, which is equal to
the Euclidean norm of the impulse response vector, provides a
bound on the I/O mapping according to
|u
n
| h r, |y
n
| f r, r = [r
nK1
, . . . , r
n
]
T
.
(21)
Therefore, solution (20) will help minimize peak values of
shaped input and transient vibration response. Also, unlike
impulse-based shapers, the solution h contains no isolated im-
pulses. Equation (20) corresponds to the case, where there is
equal penalty weighting of f and h. However, a scaling of
U
N
or Y
N
can be used when a cost of the form h
2
+f
2
is more usefully minimized.
For an adaptive algorithm, the cost of calculation (20) may
be too high for real-time operation if a large batch of I/O data
is to be considered in each update. Therefore, algorithms based
on the recursive solution are proposed that can adaptively tune
input-shaping lters to achieve ZRV. The approach described
in the following section is based on minimizing the prediction
error e through continuous updates of the lter coefcients in h.
III. ADAPTIVE FIR INPUT SHAPERS
A. RLS Algorithm
A least-squares solution for (19), which minimizes the cost
J = e
T
e, can be calculated (nonrecursively) from
_
w
x
_
N
=
_

1
I +
_
T
T
Y
T
N
U
T
N
_
[Y
N
T U
N
]
_
1
_
T
T
Y
T
N
U
T
N
_
Y
N
b.
(22)
The term
1
I prevents the inverted matrix being singular and
ensures that the lter converges to the optimal quadratic solution
for h. These points will be explained further once the RLS
algorithm has been described. Equation (22) has the form
_
w
x
_
N
= S
1
N
q
N
(23)
where the updates to these quantities at each time step are given
by
q
N+1
= q
N
+s
N

T
N
b, S
N+1
= S
N
+s
N
s
T
N
s
N
=
_
T
T

N
_
,

N
= [ y
N
y
N1
. . . y
NK
]
T

N
= [ u
N
u
N1
. . . u
NK
]
T
.
(24)
To avoid calculating the inverse of the correlation matrix S
N
every time step, which may be impossible for high-order lters
(large K) due to the computation time required, the inverse
matrix R
N
= S
1
N
can be updated directly according to the
matrix inversion formula
R
N+1
= R
N

_
1
1 +s
T
N
R
N
s
N
_
R
N
s
N
s
T
N
R
N
. (25)
The resulting algorithm is similar to a standard RLS adaptive
lter except here the error e
N
relates to the ZRV prediction
rather than an actual output error. The Nth lter update is de-
ned by [h]
N
= T[w]
N
+b and the adaptive states are updated
320 IEEE/ASME TRANSACTIONS ON MECHATRONICS, VOL. 18, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2013
according to
e
N
= s
T
N
_
w
x
_
N
+
T
N
b (26)
d
N
=
_
1
1 +s
T
N
R
N
s
N
_
R
N
s
N
(27)
_
w
x
_
N+1
=
_
w
x
_
N
+d
N
e
N
(28)
R
N+1
= (I +d
N
s
T
N
)R
N
. (29)
With this algorithm, the matrix R and vectors w and x should,
in theory, remain bounded. However, the potential for numerical
instability should be recognized.
The algorithm is initialized with R
0
= I, and so, the con-
vergence rate is dependent on the choice of , with larger values
giving faster convergence. Nevertheless, providing the systemis
persistently excited, the algorithm will converge on the optimal
quadratic solution given by (20). To prove this, consider again
the singular-value decomposition P
N
= [Y
N
T U
N
] = UV
T
.
Then, from (22),
_
w
x
_
N
= (I +P
T
N
P
N
)
1
P
T
N
Y
N
b (30)
= V (
2
+I)
1
U
T
Y
N
b (31)
= V diag
_

1
+
2
1
, . . . ,

K+1+2M
+
2
K+2M+1
_
U
T
Y
N
b.
(32)
In the limit as N and /
i
0, then
_
w
x
_
N
V diag
_
1

1
, . . . ,
1

K+1+2M
_
U
T
Y
N
b (33)
which is solution (20).
B. Adaptive Impulse-Based Shapers
Impulse-based shapers are essentially time delay lters and so
can also be realized as discrete-time FIR lters. The described
algorithm can thus be applied directly for adaptive tuning if the
timing of impulses is xed in advance. Ashaper with Qimpulses
and the total duration K + 1 is realized by an FIR lter with the
impulse response
h = A

h (34)
where

h R
Q
is the vector of impulse amplitudes and the matrix
A R
[K+1]Q
contains ones and zeros to assign the elements
of

h to the appropriate nonzero coefcients of h. The structure
of the lter synthesis problem is unchanged if the (reduced)
lter coefcient vector

h is expressed as

h = Tw +b, b =
1
Q
_
_
1
.
.
.
1
_
_
Q1
, T = b

. (35)
In this case, the parameterization is over w R
Q1
and the
ZRV prediction error is given by
e
N
= s
T
N
_
w
x
_
N
+
T
N
Ab, s
N
=
_
T
T
A
T

N
_
. (36)
Otherwise, the algorithm will remain unchanged.
It should be recognized that it is the full-order FIR lter that
arises as a general solution to the discrete-time equation for
ZRV (6). Filters with isolated impulses are a restricted subset
of solutions obtained only when additional constraints are im-
posed. In one sense, the full-order lter can be considered as the
case where the maximumnumber of impulses is used. However,
the properties of the lter are better understood by treating the
impulse response of the lter as a continuous function rather
than a series of impulses [7]. This is in fact the reality when
the smoothing action of the digital-to-analog conversion is also
taken into account. Note that the termorder is being used here
to refer to the number of nonzero coefcients and not the actual
lter order K.
C. Noise Effects
The ZRV error prediction (19) may be expressed in terms of
the FIR lter operations for h and f as
e = H y +Fu (37)
where y = y +d is a measurement contaminated by random
white noise d with zero mean value and variance
2
= E(d
2
).
The corresponding noise-perturbed quadratic cost for a data
series of length N is

J = e
T
e = h
T

Y
T
N

Y
N
h + 2h
T

Y
T
N
U
N
f +f
T
U
T
N
U
N
f (38)
where

Y
N
= Y
N
+D
N
. The expectation value of the noise-
perturbed cost is given by
E(

J) = J +h
T
E(D
T
N
D
N
)h (39)
= J +
2
Nh
2
. (40)
This simple analysis shows that the presence of noise will penal-
ize the quadratic norm/gain of h, and thus, it should be expected
that adaptation will produce a suboptimal solution, where h is
reduced at the expense of allowing some residual vibration. The
effect of noise will be lessened if the desired shaper h already
has the low quadratic norm. The minimum possible norm (sub-
ject to

h = 1) occurs when h has all equal coefcients. These

results suggest that better noise performance may be expected
for lters with more impulses and longer durations as both can
help to reduce h.
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS
A simulation study has been carried out principally to ex-
amine the inuence of measurement noise, which is the main
limiting factor for achievable performance. The study is based
on a benchmark system previously considered in [13], which is
a single-degree-of-freedom springmassdamper system with
COLE AND WONGRATANAPHISAN: DIRECT METHOD OF ADAPTIVE FIR INPUT SHAPING FOR MOTION CONTROL 321
Fig. 2. Reference trajectory used for simulation and corresponding response
without input ltering.
the transfer function
G(s) =
Y
2
(s)
Y
1
(s)
=
2
n
s +
2
n
s
2
+ 2
n
s +
2
n
. (41)
The output y
2
is the displacement of the mass, while the input
y
1
is the displacement at the other end of the spring/damper.
The model parameters are
n
= 40 rad/s and = 0.1. The
sampling period for control/adaptation is T
s
= 0.001 s.
The unmodied trajectory for the displacement y
1
and re-
sulting acceleration of the mass are shown in Fig. 2. The mo-
tion pattern is chosen to be smooth but with no intervals of
uniform acceleration so that actual residual vibration can only
be measured or evaluated when motion stops (after 1 s). The
motion pattern thus presents a challenging case to demonstrate
good adaptation and residual vibration suppression. Results with
adaptive input shaping are shown in Fig. 3. A 3-impulse lter
(Q = 3) has been chosen to allow easy visualization of the
changing coefcient values. The lter impulse response has the
total duration of K + 1 = 41 samples but the lter has only
three equally spaced nonzero coefcients. These results show
clearly that adaptation occurs in response to measurement of the
initial vibration so that a near-optimal ltering is achieved by the
time motion stops, and residual vibration is effectively canceled.
In Fig. 3(a), the adaptation is based on noisy measurements of
mass acceleration with noise variance
2
= 0.1, which results
in a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 21 dB. Results with a higher
noise level (
2
= 1) are shown in Fig. 3(b). It can be seen that
at the start of motion the lter coefcients adapt at a similar
rate, and to similar values, as in the previous case. However, af-
ter approximately 0.4 s, the measured vibration becomes lower,
and so, the effect of noise, which tends to drive the coefcients
toward equal values, can be seen more clearly. This behavior can
be understood in terms of the algorithm trying to minimize the
perturbed cost (40), which penalizes h
2
in proportion to
2
.
Nonetheless, residual vibration is still signicantly reduced and
it can be concluded that the adaptation algorithm shows good
robustness to measurement noise.
To allow comparison with full-order FIR lters, simulations
with lters of various total durations were undertaken. Conver-
gence of the lter solution was achieved under repetition of the
motion pattern in Fig. 2. Levels of residual vibration for both
Fig. 3. Simulation results for the adaptive 3-impulse shaper with measurement
noise (a) SNR = 21 dB and (b) SNR = 11 dB.
Fig. 4. Comparison of residual vibration due to noise-related errors for a range
of lter durations and types (SNR = 58 dB).
impulse-based lters and FIR lters are shown in Fig. 4. The
noise levels are the same in all cases (SNR = 58 dB). Key
results concerning noise effects are that the 3-impulse lter per-
forms comparatively poorly when the duration is close to twice
the natural period (as the required solution has large negative
impulses) and that lower residual vibration is achieved with a
full-order lter for all durations considered.
In general, a systemwith M vibratory modes requires a series
of Q 2M + 1 impulses to ensure vibration cancellation can
be achieved with arbitrary time separations (as noted in [17]).
322 IEEE/ASME TRANSACTIONS ON MECHATRONICS, VOL. 18, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2013
Fig. 5. Comparison of lter solutions obtained from the simulation for the
case K = 40. (a) Filter coefcients. (b) Filter frequency response magnitude.
This is because, in addition to the constraint

h = 1, there are
two linear constraint equations (orthogonality conditions) for h
associated with each mode [7]. However, using the minimum
value for Qmay be a poor choice for adaptive input shaping with
xed timings as, depending on the system natural frequency, the
required solution may have large quadratic norm h and thus
be prone to noise errors.
A. Characteristics of Optimized Filter Solutions
Final solutions for the case K = 40, obtained under repetition
of the motion pattern in Fig. 2, but with no measurement noise,
are shown in Fig. 5. The frequency response of the full-order
lter is distinct in character when compared with the impulse-
based lters as it is aperiodic and has low-pass properties. Note
that all three lters give exact cancellation of residual vibra-
tion as they all have a sufcient number of impulses and were
obtained without measurement noise.
For a fully adapted lter, the settling time of the system is
equal to the shaper duration (K + 1)T
s
. Therefore, decreasing
K will reduce the time taken to extinguish residual vibration
Fig. 6. Filter solutions with different total durations. A: Minimum duration
positive lter solution (K = 26). B: Full-order lter solution (K = 26). C:
Minimum duration positive full-order lter solution (K = 35).
following any given command input. A key issue in relation to
this is whether to allow negative coefcients/impulses. In situ-
ations where the shaped input is used directly as an actuation
signal, it may be useful to impose the nonnegativity constraints
h
k
0 as this will ensure that peak values of the shaped signal
do not exceed those of the original command input. In this case,
the shortest duration solution is the 2-impulse ZV shaper de-
sign (see [2]). Some indirect methods of adaptation have been
proposed that involve varying impulse timings, as well as am-
plitudes, in order to achieve such a solution [10][15].
For the algorithm in this paper, a nonnegativity constraint is
not imposed explicitly. Nonetheless, a positive shaper solution
can always be achieved by adjusting the value of K until the non-
negativity condition is satised. In doing this, a 3-impulse shaper
will achieve the minimum-duration positive solution when the
middle impulse approaches zero. A full-order lter solution of
the same duration will have some negative coefcients. In Fig. 6,
both these solutions are shown, as well as the minimum-duration
positive full-order solution, which has a duration 23% longer.
In situations where the lter is used to shape a position
reference signal for a servo control loop, the inherent input-
smoothing property of the full-order lters, derived fromthe fact
that the impulse response of the lter has no isolated impulses,
may be advantageous. For a given input signal, the smoothing
helps to reduce errors within the feedback loop and can thus
allow faster overall motions without causing saturation of ac-
tuators [7]. In such situations, the positivity constraint may not
be useful, and so, how short the shaper can be made must be
decided based on an alternative measure, such as the value of
the quadratic gain.
V. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
A. Experimental Flexible Arm Manipulator
The test system used in the experimental study is a lab-scale
two-link planar manipulator (see Fig. 7). The rst link is a stiff
aluminum beam with length 210 mm. The end link consists of
a thin acrylic beam of length 220 mm with a brass tip-mass that
can be changed in order to select the natural frequency of the rst
exible mode within the range 15 Hz. The joints are actuated
by dc motors using harmonic drives to eliminate backlash. The
joint angles
1
and
2
are measured by incremental encoders.
Strain gauges tted close to the base of the end link measure
COLE AND WONGRATANAPHISAN: DIRECT METHOD OF ADAPTIVE FIR INPUT SHAPING FOR MOTION CONTROL 323
Fig. 7. Two-link manipulator with lightweight exible end link.
Fig. 8. Schematic of control structure for shaping joint-angle reference
trajectories.
TABLE I
SERVO CONTROL LOOP PARAMETERS
bending and this provides a vibratory signal, which can be used
to evaluate link deection and residual vibration. This signal is
also the vibration variable y used in the adaptation algorithm.
The system is operated in the horizontal plane to minimize
gravitational effects.
To achieve high positioning accuracy, feedback control of
joint angles is used with input shaping/ltering applied to the
reference signals, as shown schematically in Fig. 8. The joint-
angle control loops operate with high gain PD feedback of the
measured joint angles. The system conguration is similar to
that considered in a comparative study of standard input-shaping
and alternative control techniques [18]. Further information on
the servo control loops is given in Table I.
The servo control loop and adaptive input shaper algorithm
were implemented on a PC-based control system (AMD Dual
Core 2.8 GHz processor). Clearly, the digital processor speed
will limit the achievable sampling rate and lter order. For the
current system, a sampling frequency of 1000 Hz was used
for the servo control loops. However, the input-shaping lter
and adaptation iterations were operated with a lower sampling
frequency of 500 Hz. An input-shaping lter with duration equal
to half the natural period of vibration has the lter order K close
to 100.
B. Rest-To-Rest Operation of End Link Only
The rst set of results presented involves operation of the end
link only. This ensures linear systemdynamics and allows higher
sampling rates and lter orders than would be possible with op-
eration of both links (two-input case). These results provide a
reference set with useful indications of achievable performance
for a single-degree-of-freedom system. A piecewise linear po-
sition command with constant speed intervals is considered that
produces rest-to-rest motion of the end link through rotations
of 60

. The command prole is repeated in order to assess

adaptation.
1) Full-Order FIR Filter: System behavior with adaptive
ltering of the joint-angle reference command is shown in
Fig. 9(a). The angular position of the tip mass was calculated by
summing joint angle measurements with the angular displace-
ment error estimated from measurements of link strains. For
the rst 8 s of operation the command signal was unmodied.
The maximum angular error in the tip position was about 16

,
while the settling time for vibration was approximately 4 s (for
2% settling criteria). The natural frequency of vibration with
a 5-g tip mass was 2.85 Hz. After the rst motion interval, the
adaptive ltering was activated. The lter, operating with a sam-
pling frequency of 500 Hz, has an order of 81 and, therefore,
has an impulse response duration of 0.16 s, or 0.456 vibration
periods. The RLS algorithm (26)(29) involves a matrix R of
order 2K + 1 = 161. The adaptive algorithm was initialized
with = 0.01, which gave moderate rates of initial adaptation
but still resulted in a signicant vibration reduction after only
one motion cycle. The actuation signal shown is the output
signal of the PD controller within the servo control loop and
corresponds to the motor current. Saturation limits were set at
0.8 A in accordance with the peak current rating of the motor.
Note that, because the full-order FIR ltering removes rst-
order discontinuities from the command input, the large spikes
in the actuation signal that occurred prior to ltering are no
longer present. After ve to six motion cycles further improve-
ments in residual vibration were unnoticeable [see Fig. 9(b)].
Note that the effect of the ltering is to modify the command in-
put over the time interval of 0.16 s that follows each (rst-order)
discontinuity in the unshaped command. Residual vibration of
the link is extinguished by the end of this interval.
The effect of using different values for is shown in Fig. 10.
Larger values lead to faster convergence. However, a value that
is too large (in this case, around = 1) can cause larger oscil-
lations in the initial vibration of the system.
324 IEEE/ASME TRANSACTIONS ON MECHATRONICS, VOL. 18, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2013
Fig. 9. End-link motion under adaptive input shaping with full-order lter. Command ltering and adaptation start after 8 s. (a) Initial response. (b) Response
after convergence.
Fig. 10. End-link vibration under adaptive input shaping with different initializations R
0
= I.
2) Three-Impulse Filter: Results for the same motion pattern
but using a 3-impulse adaptive lter are shown in Fig. 11. The
lter impulse response has only three equally spaced nonzero
coefcients (Q = 3). The total duration is the same as the previ-
ous case, and so, the matrix R has the order K +Q+ 1 = 84.
The lter is initialized as

h = {
1
3
,
1
3
,
1
3
}, in accordance with
(35) and w = 0. Coefcients adapt toward the optimal values
from the start of motion. Note that, for these results, the lter
was active and adapting from 0 s. Also, the lter adaptation rate
was set quite high ( = 0.1), such that after the initial phase of
motion any further vibration excitation is effectively canceled
by the shaping lter.
According to the theoretical arguments previously outlined,
the 3-impulse shaper that achieves ZRV on a single-mode sys-
tem is a unique solution. For a shaper with duration of 0.5
vibration periods, the solution is the 2-impulse ZV shaper, for
which only the two end coefcients are nonzero. Here, the lter
is slightly shorter in duration and so has a negative impulse:

h = {0.62, 0.15, 0.53} (see [8]). Note that, as the lter con-
tains discrete impulses, spikes in the motor current caused by
rst-order discontinuities in the reference input are still evident
under input shaping. Peak values of the current can be compared
with those shown in Fig. 9 for the full-order lter. The effect
that input smoothing has on the peak values is clearly evident.
Nonetheless, for these experimental conditions, saturation was
avoided, and so, residual vibration was not noticeably different
for each case.
COLE AND WONGRATANAPHISAN: DIRECT METHOD OF ADAPTIVE FIR INPUT SHAPING FOR MOTION CONTROL 325
Fig. 11. End-link motions with an adaptive three-impulse shaper.
C. General Planar Motions
In this section, attention is turned to operations with simulta-
neous rotation of both links. This involves a signicant increase
in the computational load. Separate (identical) shaping lters
operated on each command coordinate. To use the full-order
lter, the sampling frequency was reduced to 250 Hz and lter
length set to K + 1 = 41, giving the total duration 0.16 s.
The motion pattern shown in Fig. 12 involves a single rest-
to-rest maneuver with smooth command signals that produce
signicant vibration excitation only at the start and end of mo-
tion. This presents a fairly challenging task for successful adap-
tation and residual vibration cancellation. The initial congura-
tion (
1
= 0,
2
= 0) involves alignment of both links. Without
input ltering, large deection (>20

) and residual vibration

occurred in the end link [see Fig. 12(b)]. With adaptive ltering,
the algorithm reacts to the vibration measured at the start of mo-
tion to achieve immediate and effective vibration cancellation
at the end of the maneuver [see Fig. 12(c)]. The nal result is a
93% reduction in residual vibration. Note that this result cannot
be obtained with algorithms that utilize measurement of residual
vibration only, as the input signal is constantly uctuating and
there can be no direct measurement of residual vibration until
after the motion cycle has ended.
Although the input-shaping methodology has been developed
primarily for point-to-point motions, for some applications, it
may be necessary to consider the effect on the spatial path
(locus) of motion. Previous studies have shown that signicant
improvements in path following can be achieved with appli-
cation of xed model-based designs [19], [20]. To explore the
effect of adaptation on path following, a ve-segment constant
Fig. 12. Test case involving single rest-to-rest maneuver with two-link mo-
tion. (a) Command signals. (b) Response without adaptive input shaping.
(c) Response with adaptive input shaping.
speed (150 mm/s) trajectory for the tip mass was considered.
The corresponding command signals for the joint angles were
calculated from rigid-body inverse kinematics. When these sig-
nals were used directly for control the results in Fig. 13(a) were
obtained. Tracking of the joint command signals caused signif-
icant vibration of the end-link during motion, as evident in the
trajectory of the tip mass. The arc of motion about the nal po-
sition gives a clear indication of residual vibration. As previous,
tip position is estimated from strain measurement at the base of
the end link.
Adaptive ltering was applied to the joint angle command
signals using a ve-impulse shaper (Q = 5) with the sample
frequency 500 Hz and the total duration K + 1 = 81 (0.16 s).
The lter was initialized with equal impulses. Tracking along
the path was improved signicantly under adaptation and levels
of residual vibration at the end of motion greatly reduced [see
Fig. 13(b)]. Modication of the path of motion at the corner
points is due to the temporal overlap of changing x and y com-
mands. This is caused by shaper delay and can be overcome
by including a dwell period between motion segments equal
to the shaper duration [20]. These results demonstrate that the
adaptation algorithm can work successfully on a two-input sys-
tem driven simultaneously by two differing command inputs.
For nonlinear MIMO systems, there is motivation to consider
applying the input shaping in a general transformed coordinate
space. This might be with a view to improving path following
326 IEEE/ASME TRANSACTIONS ON MECHATRONICS, VOL. 18, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 2013
Fig. 13. Rest-to-rest motion with the piecewise rectilinear command trajectory
for tip mass. Adaptive input shaping operates on joint coordinates. (a) Unshaped
trajectory. (b) Trajectory shaping with an adaptive lter.
or providing compensation for varying modal dynamics, which
in general will be conguration dependent. Tests with adaptive
ltering applied to the reference trajectory in the Cartesian co-
ordinates (prior to transforming to joint coordinates) have also
been undertaken and show similar levels of residual vibration
reduction. These results indicate good robustness to such co-
ordinate transformations and, though beyond the scope of the
current paper, provide motivation for further development in
this area.
VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper, we have introduced an adaptive control method
based on the FIRinput-shaping methodology for achieving ZRV
in rest-to-rest motion of exible structures and other vibratory
systems. Mathematical conditions for ZRV have been derived
that allow shaping lter solutions to be calculated directly from
arbitrary sets of system I/O data. This provides a main contribu-
tion of the current study over previous time-domain approaches
to adaptive input shaping. Recursive algorithms for real-time
updating of lter coefcients have also been proposed and eval-
uated.
The method can be applied with very little knowledge of
the system dynamics and is directly applicable to multimode
systems, which would introduce considerable complications for
identication-based schemes. Results indicate that, with appro-
priate initialization of the algorithm, good robustness and fast
convergence rates can be achieved. Finally, it should be empha-
sized that the technique is unlike repetitive control or learning-
based algorithms in that the convergence to a ZRVlter solution
can be achieved for arbitrary nonrepetitive maneuvers.
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Matthew O. T. Cole was born in Leamington Spa,
U.K., in 1971. He received the M.A. degree in natu-
ral sciences from the University of Cambridge, Cam-
bridge, U.K., in 1995. He received the M.Sc. and
Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from the
University of Bath, Bath, U.K., in 1995 and 1999 re-
spectively.
Since 2003, he has been a Faculty Member at Chi-
ang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand, where he
is currently an Associate Professor in the Department
of Mechanical Engineering. His research interests in-
clude the application of signal processing and control technology in machine
systems.
Theeraphong Wongratanaphisan was born in
Petchaburi, Thailand, in 1972. He received the B.Eng.
degree in mechanical engineering from Chiang Mai
University, Chiang Mai, Thailand, in 1993. He was
awarded a scholarship by the Thai Government to
study at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, from
where he received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in me-
chanical engineering in 1996 and 2001, respectively.
Since 1994, he has been with the Department
of Mechanical Engineering, Chiang Mai University,
where he is currently an Associate Professor. His re-
search interests include system design, control, and robotics.