Basics of Motion Control
Loop Variations
Simple closed-loop control has been used for decades to perform machine tool
contouring. But a number of refinements are increasingly used in industry today.
These refinements are usually aimed at handling special control applications
that may include synchronization of multiple axes or web presses. Additional
improvements handle high-speed precision positioning and changing loads and
inertias when positioning the joints in robot arms.
Common variations on the basic closed-loop techniques often concern four
specific areas: filtering, synchronization of multiple axes, handling instabilities
caused by gear backlash, and obtaining low position error during acceleration
and deceleration.
Filtering
The design of a closed-loop positioning system demands that special trade-offs
be made in loop gain and bandwidth to ensure stability. Otherwise, the system
may oscillate during a move or exhibit other behavior that degrades positioning
accuracy. One way of providing the needed stability is by adding special filtering
in the position loop.
Filtering is also used to reduce following error to essentially zero in certain
systems. The usual technique is to anticipate a certain amount of following error
by integrating. Integration effectively causes the processor to command a
higher velocity than it would normally, thus reducing the amount of position
error.
This integration is applied to the position feedback from the encoder.
Differentiation filtering is also used. This generally compensates for the
mechanical time constant of a motor by incrementing or decrementing the
position feedback depending on how fast it changes. Also, feedback is
multiplied by a constant or proportional term that is basically a gain.
The three actions -- proportional, integral, and differential (PID) -- can be
thought of as implementing a bandpass characteristic in the position feedback
loop. By changing constants associated with each of the three operations, the
system can be tuned for stability under different loads and position resolutions.
Some systems implement only the PD part of PID functions. This is called
phase-lead filtering because it introduces positive phase over some frequency
band. The effect is that of a high-pass filter.
Synchronizing
electronic control systems are increasingly used to provide perfect
synchronization between the master motor and remote rollers. Feed-forward
control is a well-known means of providing such behavior. Here, a
preprogrammed feed-forward signal is applied to the master motor during
acceleration intervals. This signal is added to the motor command generated by
the position feedback. The feed-forward signal reduces the amount of position
error needed to generate a given output voltage to the motor.
In control systems that use this method, one axis typically serves as a master.
An encoder monitors the position of this axis. The signal from this encoder is
used as a master position signal. The signal is sent both to the processor
controlling the master axis and to the processors controlling other slaved axes
in the system.
Each slave axis processor algebraically sums the master position signal with
the velocity commands that it issues to the servodrive on its axis. It is in this
manner that each slave axis allows for position error in the master and, thus,
maintains synchronization. Because each slave axis is controlled by its own
processor, the speed of each slave axis can be programmed to maintain some
relationship to the speed of the master. For example, the operator can set the
speed of a slave axis to be some fraction or multiple of the master axis speed.
The slave can also maintain some degree of phase offset to the master. In
some applications, a slave axis might trace out some cam profile while
synchronized to the speed of the master axis.
To obtain high accuracy, feed-forward systems update velocity commands
anywhere from once every 500 µsec to once every millisecond, depending on
the machine being controlled. High-speed conversions, for example, generally
demand fast update speeds. Most controls for web processes employ absolute
position encoders or resolvers to provide accurate position readings
immediately at start-up. Tachometers are generally used for velocity feedback
because they produce higher output at low axis speeds than filter networks.
These type controls can also be used with nearly any kind of motor and drive,
including ac and dc brushless and dc brush motors and drives. The standard
±10-V outputs of such controllers are compatible with most motor drives
including linear, PWM, and SCR. Though torque and horsepower requirements
for differing applications frequently vary from less than 1 to 100 hp, feed-forward
control systems are configured in the same manner for either extreme.
Backlash Instability
A technique called dual-loop control is sometimes used to compensate for
instabilities caused by backlash. Backlash arises in systems where a motor is
coupled to a load through gears or lead screws. When a position encoder is
installed on such loads, a sufficient level of backlash can make the feedback
oscillate. This phenomenon can be a limiting factor for precise movements.
Dual-loop control uses two feedback encoders, one on the motor, the other
attached to the load. The motor encoder closes one loop that provides motor
control. The load encoder closes a second supervisory loop that monitors load-
position errors and then commands the motor-control loop to move.
A dual-loop algorithm would first command the motor to move a certain interval
at a specified speed. Once this move is complete, the program would check the
position of the load encoder to determine if any position error remained, then
command the motor to move until the error hit zero.
Another use for this algorithm is where a clutch couples the motor to a load.
Dual-loop control can provide smooth motion through motor velocity and load-
position profiles. For example, say that the motor must accelerate to some
constant velocity, hold this velocity for a time, then decelerate to a stop. With no
slippage, the load position is simply the integral of the motor velocity profile.
One approach to the algorithm is to give the motor a command to reduce
velocity when the load position is a certain number of counts from its final
destination. When the load is a few counts closer to the end, the motor is
commanded to stop.
The solution is independent of slip because it makes the motor run longer to
make up for the slip in rotation. Of course, the motion profile could contain a
number of set points and velocity changes for more complex profiles.
Adaptive Control
The most recent class of control techniques to be used are collectively referred
to as adaptive control. Although the basic algorithms have been known for
decades, they have not been applied in many applications because they are
calculation-intensive. However, the advent of special-purpose digital signal
processor (DSP) chips has brought renewed interest in adaptive-control
techniques. The reason is that DSP chips contain hardware that can implement
adaptive algorithms directly, thus speeding up calculations.
The main purpose of adaptive control is to handle situations where loads,
inertias, and other forces acting on the system change drastically.
A classic example of a system with changing parameters is a guided missile.
Missile mass drops as fuel burns, and it encounters differing friction at different
altitudes.
Some system changes can be unpredictable, and ordinary closed-loop systems
may not respond properly when the system transfer function varies. Sometimes,
these effects can be handled by conventional linear-control techniques such as
gain scheduling (feed-forward control). Conservative design practices may also
enable some systems to remain stable even when subjected to parameter
changes or unanticipated disturbances.
The price paid for such stability is suboptimal performance, however. Response
to changes may be sluggish. Errors may fail to stay within satisfactory limits, or
designs must compensate for loose error tolerances in other ways.
Adaptive control can help deliver both stability and good response. The
approach changes the control algorithm coefficients in real time to compensate
for variations in the environment or in the system itself. In general, the controller
periodically monitors the system transfer function and then modifies the control
algorithm. It does so by simultaneously learning about the process while
controlling its behavior. The goal is to make the controller robust to a point
where the performance of the complete system is as insensitive as possible to
modeling errors and to changes in the environment.
Even ordinary feedback-control systems are adaptive in a limited sense, in that
they can compensate for changes at their input that are within the system
bandwidth. But these changes are comparatively small. Such systems can
become unstable for large input swings, or may simply be unable to
compensate for sufficiently large input changes.
There are two main approaches to adaptive feedback-control design: model
reference adaptive control (MRAC) and self-tuning regulators (STRs). In MRAC,
a reference model describes system performance. The adaptive controller is
then designed to force the system or plant to behave like the reference model.
Model output is compared to the actual output, and the difference is used to
adjust feedback controller parameters.
Most work on MRAC has focused on the design of the adaptation mechanism.
This mechanism must note the output error and determine how to adjust the
controller coefficients. It must also remain stable under all conditions. One
problem with the approach is that there is no general theoretical method of
designing an adapter. Thus, most adapter functions are specially keyed to some
kind of end application.
An advantage of MRAC is that it provides quick adaptations for defined inputs.
A disadvantage is that it has trouble adapting to unknown processes or arbitrary
disturbances.
Model-reference controllers have an adaptation mechanism. The comparable
component in self-tuning regulators is a tuning algorithm. A self-tuning regulator
assumes a linear model for the process being controlled (which is generally
nonlinear). It uses a feedback-control law that contains adjustable coefficients.
Self-tuning algorithms change the coefficients.
These controllers typically contain an inner and an outer loop. The inner loop
consists of an ordinary feedback loop and the plant. This inner loop acts on the
plant output in conventional ways. The outer loop adjusts the controller
parameters in the inner feedback loop. The outer loop consists of a recursive
parameter estimator combined with a control design algorithm.
The recursive estimator monitors plant output and estimates plant dynamics by
providing parameter values in a model of the plant. These parameter estimates
go to a control-law design algorithm that sends new coefficients to the
conventional feedback controller in the inner loop.
The above description tends to be abstract because many different types of
controllers and schemes are used to estimate parameters. Among the most
widely used controllers are PID state controllers, and deadbeat controllers.
Recursive parameter estimation techniques include stochastic approximation,
least squares, extended Kalman filtering, and the maximum likelihood method.
