Modeling and control of a shape memory alloy actuator using fuzzy sliding mode controller

Shape memory alloys (SMAs) are suitable candidates in various fields of engineering. One advantage of these alloys is their capabilities in developing high strain and force. In addition to these great features, lightweight and super-elastic behavior are other traits of these materials. These specifications are of such an importance that make SMAs to be suitably used in further engineering applications. However, their intrinsic hysteresis non-linear behavior make their usage as position actuators difficult. Despite this challenge, there are various methods proposed in the literatures to model the hysteresis behavior of such materials. In this paper, a generalized Prandtl- Ishlinskii model, because of its simplicity, efficiency and inverse analytical capability, has been used for modeling the SMA behavior. In addition, the hysteresis modeling has been validated via experimental data of one of the articles. In the control section, however, two control systems consisting PID and fuzzy sliding mode controllers have been used. Fuzzy sliding mode control system is a method that can be used in systems without mathematical model and leads to increase in their robustness. It is shown in this paper that by using this method, it is possible to apply a suitable control input to the system in order to vanish the error signal. However, by using PID controllers, the error signal is not acceptable due to the constant controller coefficients. The results indicate the more efficient performance of fuzzy sliding mode controller with respect to the classical PID controller.