Influence of controller parameters on the life of ball screw feed drives

The ball screws are the machine component most frequently used for transforming rotational into linear motion of a feed drive, to position the machine tool components carrying the cutting tool to the desired location. A failure of the ball screw usually leads to a total breakdown of the axis; therefore, the attainable life of this component is an important issue concerning the availability and productivity of modern machine tools. This article presents an approach to evaluate the influence of control parameters on the fatigue life of ball screws based on simulation, by means of a numerical model of a machine tool servo-axis. Ball screw life was evaluated with different conditions, varying the position loop main proportional gain and the kinematic limit conditions for trajectory generation. Furthermore, the mathematical model was used to evaluate optimal control gain and trajectory conditions for a machine tool based on the achievable life span of the ball screw feed drive system, with regard to the desirable performances, such as position accuracy, promptness, and cutoff frequency

A Hybrid Controller for Stability Robustness, Performance Robustness, and Disturbance Attenuation of a Maglev System

Devices using magnetic levitation (maglev) offer the potential for friction-free, high-speed, and high-precision operation. Applications include frictionless bearings, high-speed ground transportation systems, wafer distribution systems, high-precision positioning stages, and vibration isolation tables. Maglev systems rely on feedback controllers to maintain stable levitation. Designing such feedback controllers is challenging since mathematically the electromagnetic force is nonlinear and there is no local minimum point on the levitating force function. As a result, maglev systems are open-loop unstable. Additionally, maglev systems experience disturbances and system parameter variations (uncertainties) during operation. A successful controller design for maglev system guarantees stability during levitating despite system nonlinearity, and desirable system performance despite disturbances and system uncertainties. This research investigates five controllers that can achieve stable levitation: PD, PID, lead, model reference control, and LQR/LQG. It proposes an acceleration feedback controller (AFC) design that attenuates disturbance on a maglev system with a PD controller. This research proposes three robust controllers, QFT, Hinf , and QFT/Hinf , followed by a novel AFC-enhanced QFT/Hinf (AQH) controller. The AQH controller allows system robustness and disturbance attenuation to be achieved in one controller design. The controller designs are validated through simulations and experiments. In this research, the disturbances are represented by force disturbances on the levitated object, and the system uncertainties are represented by parameter variations. The experiments are conducted on a 1 DOF maglev testbed, with system performance including stability, disturbance rejection, and robustness being evaluated. Experiments show that the tested controllers can maintain stable levitation. Disturbance attenuation is achieved with the AFC. The robust controllers, QFT, Hinf , QFT/ Hinf, and AQH successfully guarantee system robustness. In addition, AQH controller provides the maglev system with a disturbance attenuation feature. The contributions of this research are the design and implementation of the acceleration feedback controller, the QFT/ Hinf , and the AQH controller. Disturbance attenuation and system robustness are achieved with these controllers. The controllers developed in this research are applicable to similar maglev systems

Energy-Optimal Control of Over-Actuated Systems - with Application to a Hybrid Feed Drive

Over-actuated (or input-redundant) systems are characterized by the use of more actuators than the degrees of freedom to be controlled. They are widely used in modern mechanical systems to satisfy various control requirements, such as precision, motion range, fault tolerance, and energy efficiency. This thesis is particularly motivated by an over-actuated hybrid feed drive (HFD) which combines two complementary actuators with the aim to reduce energy consumption without sacrificing positioning accuracy in precision manufacturing. This work addresses the control challenges in achieving energy optimality without sacrificing control performance in so-called weakly input-redundant systems, which characterize the HFD and most other over-actuated systems used in practice. Using calculus of variations, an optimal control ratio/subspace is derived to specify the optimal relationship among the redundant actuators irrespective of external disturbances, leading to a new technique termed optimal control subspace-based (OCS) control allocation. It is shown that the optimal control ratio/subspace is non-causal; accordingly, a causal approximation is proposed and employed in energy-efficient structured controller design for the HFD. Moreover, the concept of control proxy is proposed as an accurate causal measurement of the deviation from the optimal control ratio/subspace. The proxy enables control allocation for weakly redundant systems to be converted into regulation problems, which can be tackled using standard controller design methodologies. Compared to an existing allocation technique, proxy-based control allocation is shown to dynamically allocate control efforts optimally without sacrificing control performance. The relationship between the proposed OCS control allocation and the traditional linear quadratic control approach is discussed for weakly input redundant systems. The two approaches are shown to be equivalent given perfect knowledge of disturbances; however, the OCS control allocation approach is shown to be more desirable for practical applications like the HFD, where disturbances are typically unknown. The OCS control allocation approach is validated in simulations and machining experiments on the HFD; significant reductions in control energy without sacrificing positioning accuracy are achieved.PHDMechanical EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146104/1/molong_1.pd

New Approaches in Automation and Robotics

The book New Approaches in Automation and Robotics offers in 22 chapters a collection of recent developments in automation, robotics as well as control theory. It is dedicated to researchers in science and industry, students, and practicing engineers, who wish to update and enhance their knowledge on modern methods and innovative applications. The authors and editor of this book wish to motivate people, especially under-graduate students, to get involved with the interesting field of robotics and mechatronics. We hope that the ideas and concepts presented in this book are useful for your own work and could contribute to problem solving in similar applications as well. It is clear, however, that the wide area of automation and robotics can only be highlighted at several spots but not completely covered by a single book