A robust Artificial Neural Network controller is proposed for the motion
control of a magnetic disk drive voice coil motor (voice coil motor). The
neural controller is used to approximate the nonlinear functions (actuator
electromechanical dynamics) of the voice coil motor while having on line
training. One main advantage of this approach, when compared with standard
adaptive control, is that complex dynamical analysis is not needed. Using
this design, not only strong robustness with respect to uncertain dynamics
and non-linearities can be obtained, but also the output tracking error
between the plant output and the desired reference can asymptotically
converge to zero. Additionally, standard offline training, utilizing
training vectors to stimulate the voice coil motor, is not required.