Position-Dependent Snap Feedforward: A Gaussian Process Framework

Mechatronic systems have increasingly high performance requirements for motion control. The low-frequency contribution of the flexible dynamics, i.e., the compliance, should be compensated for by means of snap feedforward to achieve high accuracy. Position-dependent compliance, which often occurs in motion systems, requires the snap feedforward parameter to be modeled as a function of position. Position-dependent compliance is compensated for by using a Gaussian process to model the snap feedforward parameter as a continuous function of position. A simulation of a flexible beam shows that a significant performance increase is achieved when using the Gaussian process snap feedforward parameter to compensate for position-dependent compliance.