Adaptive sliding mode control with hysteresis compensation-based neuroevolution for motion tracking of piezoelectric actuator

In this paper, an adaptive sliding mode control with hysteresis compensation-based neuroevolution (ACNE) is proposed for precise motion tracking of the piezoelectric actuator (PEA) in the presence of uncertainties, disturbances, and nonlinearity hysteresis characteristics. Firstly, a new memetic differential evolution (MeDE) algorithm is proposed to optimize the weights of a 3-layer neural network (called neuroevolution or NE). In MeDE, a differential evolution algorithm is used as a global search scheme and the Jaya algorithm is used as local search exploitation. Secondly, an inverse hysteresis model of PEA is identified by the neuroevolution model to provide a feed-forward NE control signal to compensate for the hysteresis behavior of PEA system. Thirdly, an adaptive neural sliding mode control plus feedforward NE (ACNE) control is designed to enhance the quality control and guarantee asymptotical stability for PEA system. Based on the Lyapunov method, the stability of the closed-loop system is analyzed and proved. Finally, the experimental Thorlabs piezoelectric actuator (PEA) is set up to verify the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed approach. Results show that the identified MeDE-Neuroevolution model has successfully applied to model the inverse hysteretic of PEA system and the performance of MeDE has better than Jaya, DE, and PSO in terms of best, worst, average, and standard deviation. Furthermore, in motion tracking control, the performance of proposed ACNE control has more accurate than a classical PID control, a feedforward control, a hybrid feedback–feedforward control, and an adaptive neural sliding mode control without a compensator. •A new adaptive inverse neural (AIN) control method is applied to precisely tracking of PZT actuator displacement.•A 3-layer neural model optimized by EDE technique is used to identify the inverse hysteresis structure of PZT.•A feed-forward control using the identified model is proposed to compensate for the PZT hysteresis effects.•Lyapunov principle is used to implement an adaptive law based neural sliding mode plus feed-forward compensator to ensure PZT plant operated in stability.•Experiment results demonstrate the superiority of proposed AIN approach in comparison with other advanced control methods.