Proceedings of the 2011 IEEE

International Conference on Mechatronics

April 13-15, 2011, Istanbul, Turkey
t0C!IC0! 0HG bODuS! LOH!tO! IOt tcCISIOH OSI!IOHIH_
OjS!cDS
siiaHan,ciaa,`'kaijisa:a

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Department of Control, Instrumentation & Automation, Universiti Teknikl Malaysia Melak
Hang Tuah Jaya, 76100 Durian Tunggal, Melak, Malaysia.
lhorg@utem.edu.my
"
Interdisciplinar Graduate Shool of Sience and Engineering, Toko Institute of Technolog
4259 Nagatsuta, Midori-ku, Yokohama 226-8502, Japan.
2sato.k.ah@m.titech.ac.jp
Abstact- This paper presents a practical and improved
practical controller for enhancing precision motion performance.
For practical use, high motion control performance, ease of
design and controller adjustment are desired. A nominal
characteristic trajectory following (NCTF) control has been
studied to realize high performance and ease of application. The
NCTF controller consists of a nominal characteristic trajectory
(NCT) which is the reference motion of a control system and
determined from experimental open-loop time responses of the
mechanism and a compensator which makes the motion of the
controlled object to follow NCT. The controller parameters can
be determined easily, without any given model parameters. In
the present paper, the Acceleration-Reference - Continuous
Motion (AR-CM) NCTF controller has been proposed and
implemented. The AR-CM NCTF considers the acceleration
reference for object motion as additional controller elements
besides the velocity reference. The AR-CM NCTF controller
provides the advantage of high overshoot reduction and
disturbance reduction characteristics. This paper then highlights
how robustness the controller in the precision positioning
systems. The issues considered include (i) variation of mass
object; (ii) variation of disturbance force such as coulomb and
viscosity frictions. The design procedure of the AR-CM NCTF
controller remains easy, practical and is independent of friction
characteristics. Validation and implementation of the AR-CM
NCTF controller with a mechanism with friction are carried out
in order to confrm its efectiveness. The robustness of the AR
CM NCTF controller is examined by comparing its motion
performance with the PDDO (PD + disturbance observer)
controllers. The comparative experimental results illustrate the
achievable performance of the AR-CM NCTF controller in
positioning and tracking control and the higher robustness to
plant parameter variations, as compared to the PDDO
controllers.
Kewords- Precision, Motion control, NCTF control, Practical
control, Positioning control, Tracking control
I. INTRODUCTION
Precision motion systems for positioning and tacking
contols have been steadily gatering momentu and
attention over te last centu in term of reseach and
industial machines such as machine tools, measuring
machines and semiconductor manufacturing systems.
Precision motion systems require high motion accuracy andor
resolution, high acceleration and high velocity [1]. The system
978-1-61284-985-0/11/$26.00 2011 IEEE
performances are greatly infuenced by the characteristics of
the mechanisms. Since te effort to improve te mechanism
featues for high motion contol performance have proved
onerous and costly, hence, te contoller plays a important
role to overcome te remaining mechanical problems and to
utilize teir charcteristic for high motion contol performance.
The design of higly accurate contol systems in te
presence of sigifcant uncertainty requires te designer to
seek a robust system. Compared to conventional classical
contollers such as PID and lead-lag contollers [2-3], tose
advanced contollers such as optimal, H and fzzy
contollers have advantages in better perforance for suitable
applications. Classical contollers, however, still retain teir
popularity and widely used in industal applications. Then,
te classical contollers have met limitations when a higher
positioning performance becomes more stgent and high
robust chaacteristics are required. Recently, many advanced
contollers have been devoted to solve these problems, such as
robust contollers wit disturbance observer [4], combination
of fiction compensation, a disturbance observer, a position
feedback and a feedforward contoller with zero phase eror
tacking contoller (ZPETC) [5], adaptive robust contollers
[6], sliding mode contoller [7] and advaced intelligent
contollers. Even tough tose advanced contollers are
capable to gain performance satisfed in robustess of
precision positioning, determination of kown model
parameters of te plat and sufcient knowledge of contol
theory in their design procedure are necessa. The
performances of tese contollers ae based on how accurate
the kown-model and kown paameters are used in the
desig procedures. These design processes are time
consuming ad much labor is acquired to identif the accurate
parameters, which present baiers to their practical use.
To te best of our knowledge, there are still few or not yet
have studies or designs about a practical contoller which has
applicable design procedure and is able to produce high
performance in motion contol. This motivates te present
study. In tis research, a practical solution, nominal
characteristics tajectory following (NCTF) controllers have
been proposed and studied to overcome te occured problems
[8-15]. The NCTF contol systems serves as a practical and
easy hadle contoller that does not require a known model,
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given parameters of te plant and much knowledge of te
contol theory in the desig and to have a simple stcture that
is easy to design ad adjust. Up to date, te NCTF contollers
have been improved steadily to enhance its performance in
positioning, tacking and continuous motion contol. Besides,
the NCTF contollers have demonstated better positioning
performance tan te Ziegler-Nichols tuning metod [8]. The
experimental results in [10] indicate tat the Continuous
Motion (CM) NCTF contoller is more suitable in positioning
and tracking motion contols. Then, te Acceleration
reference - Continuous Motion (AR-CM) NCTF contoller
[14] has been proposed to improve te CM NCTF contoller
for reduction of te overshoot and the motion eror.
This paper focuses on designing ad implementing te AR
CM NCTF contoller on a mechanism wit fiction for
positioning and tacking contol. The AR-CM NCTF
contoller serves in improving te following characteristic of
te object motion to NCT near origin and providing the high
overshoot reduction characteristics and low sensitivity to
distubace force. The AR-CM NCTF contoller is evaluated
in positioning and tacking motion contol. The PD contollers
wit disturbance observers (PDDO) are desiged and
compared with te AR-CM NCTF contoller in order to
evaluate their robust performance in the presence of mass
variations and disturbance changes.
This paper presents te contol stcture ad design
procedue of te proposed contoller ad its robust contol for
precision positioning systems. The rest of te paper is
organized as follows: Section II presents te design of te
contoller wit its stcture and design procedue. Section III
presents te experimental apparatus used in tis research. The
comparative experimental results are evaluated and discussed
in Section IV.
II. DESIGN OF THE CONTROLLER
Fig. I shows the stcture of te CM NCTF contol system
desiged for high motion contol performance. The contoller
comprises a nominal characteristic trajectory (NCT) and a PI
compensator as well as te basic NCTF contoller for PTP
positioning [9]. The NCT represents te reference motion of
te system and is expressed on te phase plane. The PI
compensator makes te object motion follow te NCT and
leads te motion to te origin of te phase plane. The NCT is
constcted fom te velocity and displacement responses in
open-loop condition because the relationship between tem is
essentially infuenced by te mechanism characteristics. The
inclination of NCT near origin is refered as p. The NCT is
used for determining te viual eror rate reference for each
deviation ad te PI compensator works for velocity contol.
Due to te less accuate following characteristics of te
object motion on te NCT near the origin of phase plae, te
CM NCTF contoller causes te slight overshoot problems
and less motion accuracy on te motion contol perforance.
It is due to te following characteristics which cause
overshoots and slight residual vibrations nea te origin of te
phase plane, as shown in Fig. 2. To solve tis problem, te
AR-CM NCTF contoller is proposed as a practical contoller
r __CIECtQ[
I
Fig. 1 Continuous Motion (CM) NCTF contol system

e
- -
I
Phase plane
Fig. 2 Problem occued with the CM NCTF controller
to improve te following characteristic of the object motion
on the NCT near the origin. It provides the high overshoot
reduction chaacteristics and improves motion accuacy of the
system.
A. Structure
Fig. 3 shows the AR-CM NCTF contoller stcture. The
AR-CM NCTF contoller includes the CM NCTF contoller
stcture. The shaded part is te additional contoller element
added to te CM NCTF contoller. Besides the velocity
reference, te acceleration reference for object motion is used
as te additional contoller element. The additional contoller
elements are 8block and A-block (see Fig. 3). The
relationship between e and e for te object motion is
considered. As te AR-CM NCTF contol system is
approximately modeled as a simple linear system, te contol
law, u of te AR-CM NCTF contoller is:
U(s) K +
K
i ,U (s), where
P
K
P
s
0_s)= (E(s)s E

,(s)s)+ (E(s)s E(s)s)

wit
E
(s)s ~ (Xr(s)X(s_
s
_, and
l+Tds
E
(S)S
2
(Xr(s) X(S _
s

2
l+Tds
The 8block is constructed fom the open-loop acceleration
wit te inclination near te origin, 0 tat is te same as te
NCT, p. It is a virtual acceleration reference for te object
motion. By considering te acceleration trajectory in te
contol system, the object motion can be contolled ad follow
962
NCTFCOnI|O||e|
-------------------------------
l+T"
o-block
,
,
,
,
I
L
PI compensator
A -bJok
Acce/erton
Refrnce (AR) par
L
Fig. 3 Stcture of te Acceleration-Reference - Continuous Motion (AR-CM) NCTF controller
more accuately te NCT and ended at te origin witout ay
overshoot near te origin of te phase plane. In addition, te A
gain of te A-block is adjusted adaptively to work well wit
te 8block in order to improve the motion accuracy. Overall,
te additional contoller elements in the AR-CM NCTF
contoller help to reduce te difference between te actual
eror rate and te reference eror rate (e - e
NCT )'
especially
near the origin. As te results, the contoller is expected to
have high overshoot reduction characteristics and low
sensitivity to disturbace force due to te e is expected to
decrease.
B. Design Procedure
Notice tat, te stcture of te AR-CM NCTF contoller
becomes a slightly complex wit te additional controller
elements. However, te desig procedue remains easy and
practical.
The design procedure of te AR-CM NCTF contoller
includes that of the CM NCTF controller. The AR-CM NCTF
contoller is basically designed according to te following
procedue.
(I) NCT construction & PI compensator deterination
The same constcted-NCT ad PI compensator as
the previous CM NCTF contoller [13] is used.
(I) 8block constrction:
It is constcted fom the open-loop acceleration
which has been obtained in te CM NCTF
contoller design. Therefore, exta experiment is
not needed to constct te 8block. Its inclination
near origin, Jis the same as NCT, p.
(I
I
Time delay determination of di erential elements
It is adopted to reduce the gain at high fequency.
The selected f i,1ITd) is twice time of te f
(fequency determined fom the inclination of
NCT nea orign). The contoller includes many
derivative elements which are responsible for te
amplifcation of te measurement noise. The
adopted time constant, Td is usefl to flter suitably
the noise ad to avoid te signifcant infuence to
te dominant dynamics of the contol system.
(IV A-block construction
It is deterined to reduce the ( e - e
NCT )
as
shown in Fig. 3. The parameter A is a adjustable
gain and might be any value of gain paraeter.
The A is adjusted to reduce te residual vibration
in te positioning.
In tis reseach, two different value of A was
examined: :A] (1I2P and A2 (1I3p. The A which
could result in te best positioning accuracy is
used.
The chaacteristic near te reference position (origin) is
important for positioning ad infuences te motion accuracy.
The p is te inclination of NCT near origin which is te
largest value (gain) in te phase plane. The larger p will lead
to possibility of system instability. To discuss the stability of
te contol system, te NCT, 8block and A-block are
approximated to a staight line which is near to the reference
position, p. Thus, te used of te linearized NCT, 8block and
A-block in verifing the stability of te AR-CM NCTF contol
system is enough and acceptable. The efect of te
nonlinearity is considered as te change of the inclination of
the line.
963
It should be noted tat te design procedue shown above
can be completed without any motion equations, known
model parameters ad te basic contol teory.
III. EXPERIMENTAL APPARATUS
The I -DOF air-slide mechanism depicted in Fig. 4 is used
to evaluate te proposed design procedue of te AR-CM
NCTF contoller. The mechanism consists of a air-guide
(manufactued by NSK) ad a voice-coil motor (VCM). The
mechanism has a working range of 22mm. To measure te
displacement of mechaism, a laser position sensor
(AGILENT TECHNOLOGIES 10897B) wit a resolution of
1.24nm is used. A amplifer, which is limited at 40V and
6A, is employed to dive te VCM. The contoller is
implemented at a sampling rate of 2.5kHz. The mechanism
(1O.5kg) wit force constat (6.12 N/A), is fndamentally
under non-contact condition. The contact mechanism is
obtained by adjusting te adjusting unit for fiction
characteristics. The contact condition between te plastic ba
in te adjusting-uit ad te table is adjustable. The grease is
located between te adjusting unit and te table. In tis paper,
the mechanism with fiction chaacteristic has fiction
coefcient, fma
0.35N and damping coefcient generated by
te grease is 9.3Ns/m.
Fig. 4 I-DOF air-slide mechaism with the adjusting-unit for fiction
chaacteristics.
IV. PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
In order to show te effectiveness of te AR-CM NCTF
contoller, te positioning and tacking performances are
experimentally evaluated. Then, its performances are
compared wit te designed PD contollers wit distubance
observers, in te puose to examine and compare teir
robustess.
For comparison with the AR-CM NCTF contoller, te
PDDO contoller is designed under the following condition:
(I) The linearized contol system has te same
bandwidt as the linearized AR-CM NCTF contol
system.
The state equation of te object is derived as:
... (1)
1
where d
in
=
M
d
I
and
K f
= K , M wit df is
disturbance force, Kf is force constant ad M is total mass
of te object. The d
in
K f has te same unit as te
contol input.
The distubance observer based on (I) ca be designed to
estimate df. As te distubance observer, te minimum ord

r
observer [16] was desiged. The PDDO contol system IS
shown in Fig. 5. In the design of PDDO, the PD compensator
parameters are deterined so tat te contol system satisfes
the condition (I). Table I shows te contoller parameters for
two kinds of the desiged PDDO. Bot PDDO contollers
have te same bandwidth as te AR-CM NCTF contoller,
however, te PDDO-B is designed to have exactly same
fequency response as te AR-CM NCTF contol system (see
Fig. 6).
II
"
Q
"
.
c
C
r
::
Fig. 5 Block diagam of a minimum-order disturbance observer
10
0
-10
. .... 0.
-20
.... ct
-30
-2
3
-40
.... -.
-50
"5
-60
.... ..7. 0
-70
0.01
:o
0.1
... .0
1 10
Frequency Hz
1000
Fig. 6 Frequency response of the AR-CM NCTF and PDDO controllers
So far, te AR-CM NCTF contoller has been evaluated
and compared wit te CM NCTF contoller using te non
contact mechanism [14]. The AR-CM NCTF contoller has
shown better motion contol performance tan the CM NCTF
contoller.
In tis section, the robustess of the AR-CM NCTF
contoller to mass variation ad disturbace force is examined
experimentally using te mechanism wit fiction. Then, te
964
positioning and tacking contol perfonances of te AR-CM
NCTF contoller are compared wit the PDDO contollers.
TALE 1
CONTROLLER PAMETERS OF THE PDDO CONTROL SYSTEMS
Controller
PDDO-A
PDDO-B
20.57
70.57
0.6
0.5
A. Robustness to mass variation
Obserer's poles
[0.1,0.11]
[0.1,0.11]
To test the robustess of te proposed contollers to mass
variation, an additional load is fxed to the table of te
mechanism so that the mechaism load is about twice times
larger than the default mechanism load. The positioning
experimental results of three contollers to a lmm step input
are given in Figs. 7 and 8. As seen fom the results, te
response of the PDDO-B (which has similar reference
following characteristics to the AR-CM NCTF) produces
extemely high overshoot. The PDDO-A and AR-CM NCTF
are able to eliminate te overshoot. As observed, te PDDOs
take longer positioning time to reduce te eror less tan
100n. The positioning responses wit default mass and
increased mass are almost te same, indicating te stong
perfonance robustess of te AR-CM NCTF to parameter
variation. It is also seen tat te AR-CM NCTF does have
better positioning accuracy (1 Onm) and faster rise time and
positioning time to reduce eror less tha 100n.
For tacking motion, sinusoidal reference input (O.5Hz,
l/m) is applied to command the mechanism with fiction.
Even toug te PDDO-A is able to demonstate satisfing
positioning perfonance, however, it yields te largest
maximum tacking eror (almost twice times) as compared to
the oter contollers (see Fig. 9). The PDDO-B, which has
similar reference following chaacteristic to the AR-CM
NCTF has shown similar tacking responses as te AR-CM
NCTF, wit smaller tacking eror. When te mass of object is
increased, te tacking eror of te PDDO-A and PDDO-B are
increased (see Fig. 10).
B. Robustness to disturbance force
For te increased fiction force, te adjusting uit is
adjusted to icrease the coulomb fiction and the velocity
fiction to about four times and twice times of the default one.
The positioning responses wit the increased fiction force for
three contollers are shown in Fig. 11. As observed, te
PDDO-B yields extemely high overshoot when fiction force
is increased. Even tough te PDDO-A does not produce any
uwanted overshoot, but it takes too long positioning time (te
same as PDDO-B) to reach steady-state. Overall, te AR-CM
NCTF maintains better positioning perfonance when fiction
force is increased to the mechanism.
Fig. 12 depicts te tacking perfonance for te increased
fiction force for te reference input: sine wave (O.5Hz, Imm).
As observed, te PDDO-A is still the contoller that
demonstates the largest maximum tracking erors. As the
fiction force is increased, the PDDO-B shows smaller
maximum tacking eror tan the AR-CM NCTF. However,
the AR-CM NCTF could reduce te eror quickly to nearly
zero when te mechanism is keeping te same direction in
comparison wit te PDDO-B.
V. CONCLUSIONS
This paper has presented a practical desig approach to
robust contol for precision positioning systems. The practical
contoller is naed as AR-CM NCTF contoller. This contol
offers te high overshoot reduction and distubance reduction
characteristics, while showing higher robust perfonance in
motion contol. The design procedue remains easy and
practical. The experimental results proved tat, te AR-CM
NCTF contoller is capable in reducing overshoot and motion
eror. It has demonstated superior perfonance in positioning
and tacking contol and higher robustess to te mass and
fiction force increase tan te two PDDO contollers. The
disturbance reduction chaacteristic of te AR-CM NCTF
contoller has been proved wit its better robust perfonance.
The motion accuracy of te AR-CM NCTF contoller is not
yet te satisfed one. Thus, te ftue works should be taen to
improve its motion accuracy.
E
E
> 1
"
Q
E
Q
u
r
C
(
i 0
t
- - - PDDO-A -PDDO-B AR-CM NCTF controller

,

I
,
>

i
1.0

.-.

i
0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.2

Tims
I
0.0
Time s
Fig. 7 Step responses to a 1m step input
- - - PDDO-A -PDDO-B AR-CM NCTF controller
Time s
Fig. 8 Step responses to a 1m step input (increased mass object)
965
Tracking error with default mass object


. . - -
. . . . .
o ... .... : .. ; ..- . ... .. . . . - . . . . : . ..+ . ..+ . . . .
. . . . .
. .

- - -
5

_
'

'
'

'

'

' ' ' ' '

W-1 .
5

o 2 4 6 8 10
nme(s)
Fig. 9 Tracking error for PDDO-A, PDDO-B and AR-CM NCTF controllers
wit default mass
oE
02
o
o g
"w
Tracking error with increased mass object

. . +

o ... ... : ... ; .. . . . : . . .. : . . . ..: . . .
. .
. - . .

. . . . +
5

_ . .

.

W-1 .
5

o 2 4 6 8 10
nm(s)
Fig. 10 Tracking error for PDDO-A, PDDO-B ad AR-CM NCTF contollers
wit increased mass object
E
E
)
'
Q
E

t
a
I
i 0
- - - PO OO-A POOO-8 AR-CM NCTF controller
I
'--- - -
,
0.0 0.4
I 1.0

g
o
0.8
Time s
0.20
r '#q `
f, '
P d
------------
I I
1.2 1.6
Fig. 11 Step responses to a lmm step input (increased fiction force)
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The autor would like to thank his Ph advisor, Assoc.
Prof Kaiji Sato, and all his past and curent laboratory
members for teir contibutions to te results presented i te
paper. Besides, I would like to express my high gatitude to
Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka for te generous
fmacial assistance.
Tracking error with increased friction force



o 2 4 6 8 10
Time(s)
Fig. 12 Tracking eror for PDDO-A, PDDO-B and AR-CM NCTF controllers
wit increased fiction force
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