A CONTROL METHOD OF SPEED CONTROL DRIVE SYSTEM WITH BACKLASH

You Wu, Kiyoshi Fujikawa, Hirokazu Kobayashi

Technical Research Laboratory, Toyo Electric.Mfg.Co.,Ltd. 338-1Kami-soyagi, Yamato, Kanagawa.242 Japan rel:+81-462-64-578 1;fax:+81-462-63-2947; e-mail:wuyou@lab.toyodenki.co.jp

Abstract: This paper proposes a control ~netlwd speed of

control drive system with gear (or coupling)backlash. The proposed controller consists of a PI controller and P D feedback compensation of the gear torque estimated by a disturbance observer. The gains of the controller can be designed by the pole assignment o the closed loop f system. Analysis and experiment results show that the direrential feedback o the estimated gear torque is f effective for the vibrationssuppression.

driving motor and a load coupled to the driving motor tlvough a gear and a shaft. In following analyses. we will assume that the gear has a finite backlash and a higher stiffness coefficient.
gear torque load speed
I

gear

1. Introduction
It is well known that the presence of gear or coupling backlash is a destabilizing factor. If the gear backlash is holden in motor drive systems with a torsional loads, the results of a speed step response is with extended duration of oscillation. To solve the problem of backlash, different control methods have been presented in many paperslll[3]. The paper[l] proposed a fast and robust speed control method by using the state feedback technique combined with state variable observers. In the paper[2]. a collisionfree control method of servomechanism with backlash using microcomputer has been proposed. However, in either method, the controller structure are very complicated, so that the implementation of the cootroller is not easy. From a practical point of view, in this paper, we propose a simple control method of speed control drive system wit11 backlash. The controller is designed using a PI controller and feedback compensation of the estimated gear torque using a disturbance observer. Backlash compensation can be done through the feedback of the estimated gear torque. Although the control design approach is easy, it is shown that the proposed speed controller yields a robust stability system. The effectiveness of the proposed method will be shown by both simulations and experiments.

controlled motor iuput speed

i ?

11

torque

Fig. 1 Motor drive system with a torsional load

If we take the effects of gear inertia and backlash into account, the motor drive system can be accurately modeled by a Three-Mass (3M) system. Fig.:! shows a block diagram representation of the 3M system, where the box containing a nonlinear element represents the model used for the gear backlash. The 3M system parameters used in this paper are listed on the Tablel.

Th

2. Controlled System and Backlash Analysis

A typical structure of a motor drive system wt a ih torsional load is shown in Fig.1. The system consists of a

Fig.2 Block diagram of the 3M system

0- 7803-3219- 9/96/$5.00
631

AMC ' 6 MIE 9-

1996 IEEE

Table1 3M System Parameters Symbol

JIn

3. PID Speed Control

In this chapter, a PID controller will be approximately designed for the 3M system shown in Fig.2. From a fact that the value of gear inertia (J,) is smaller than the motor and the gear stiffness gain ( , is very big, K) the 3M system can be similar to a 2M system as shown in Fig.5 if there is not backlash in the gear (i.e. 69).In Fig.5, Jmg(dm+Jg) the sum of the motor inertia and the is gear inertia as a equivalent motor inertia.

J,
J.3

K,
Ks 6

Description motor inertia load inertia gear inertia gear stiffness shaft stiffness gear backlash

Value 0.532 Kgmz

0.079 K & ,
2000 N d r a d

ldegree]

Under normal conditions, the Describing Function method can be used for treating any nonlinear system if oily the nonlinear system meet the requirements that the output of the nodinear element in response to a sinusoidal input is dominated by the first harmonic of a Fourier series, and that the linear elements of the system sharply attenuate all higher harmonics. Fortunately, most servomechanisms contain elements which act as low-pass filters and thus attenuate all higher harmonics. When we take the angular difference d 8 = 8 m- 8 as the input of the backlash model, and the gear torque T, as the output of the backlash model, the backlash nonlinearity can be derived as a characteristic of a dead-band shown in Fig.3 where, 6 is the backlash and K, is the gear stiffness coefficient. By application of the describing function method, we can treat the speed drive system with a backlash in the frequency domain, where the describing function is considered as the transfer function corresponding to the fundamental Fourier component of the backlash output. The transfer function of the backlash is[l]:

7 lTL

Fig.5 Block diagram representation of the 2M system For this 2M system, a PID controller can be easily designed with the Coefficient Diagram Method (CDM) by prof. Manabe of T O M UNIV. [4],[5]. The PID control is design approach presented by the reference [I following: When a PID(Kp+Kils+K&) speed controller is used for the 2M system, the characteristic polynomial of the closed loop system is given by
A (s) = J L (Jms + K d ) s 4+ Kp/,s3
+ k s (Jntg + J L + Kd)
4

+ Ki J , 1s' + K p K s s + KiKs
a. (2)

=a4s

+ als + a's + a ' s +

The conditions of the Manabe polynomial

[I are

GD ( j w ) = --K 8 (-2 K

- sin-' ( R ) - R

m ) L O o

(1)

where, R= 6 /A and A is the amplitude of the input signal d 8 . Fig.4 shows a plot of the describing function gain N(=G,/K,) versus the parameter R. We can see the gain N decreases uniformly from 1 toward zero as R approaches 1. Therefore the presence of backlash in the gear is equivalent to an additional variable gain ( O S N S l ) acting on the gear stiffness gain .

Finding the solutions of the equations (3)-(5), the PID i controller's gains Kp. K and & can be found as following
(6)

4 K i = -Ks 11

= 11236

(7)

Backlash
Fig.3 Backlash nonlinearity characteristic

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0

R
Fig.4 Describing function plot of backlash

However, when the PID controller is used for the 3M system shown in Fig.2, the characteristic polynomial of the closed loop system is given by

632

where, the nonlinear element of the backlash is replaced by the equivalent gain NKg. From equation (9), a essential condition for stabilizing the closed loop system is J,+KpO, therefore in order to form a robust stability system, we take the differential gain & as
K d = -0.2 > -J,,,

By looking at the poles of the closed loop system, we can examine the stability of the closed loop system with backlash using PID controller, where the backlash is replaced by the equivalent gain Nkg and the nonlinear gain N is vaned between zero and 1. Fig.7 shows the root loci of the system including the 3M plant and the PID controller. The pole assignment shows that as N decrease, the gearresonance poles which are weakly damped move toward the imaginary axis and the shaft-resonance poles move toward the origin as shown in Fig.7.
200

................................

.......................................

..................................

..................................
yLwzcl;mcc L

i x--- N=o
200

ji

i A--- N=J, ...........................................................................

.................

+.........................................................................

(10)

We simulated the time response of the PID controller used for the 3M system with a backlash. The input we used in this simulation were speed command: w * is a ramp signal ( 40radlsec2 ) disturbance: T, is a stepwise impact 20" at t=3[sec] The simulated time response of the PID controlled system with a gear backlash ( 6 = 1 degree, K,=2000 Nmlrad) is shown in Fig.6. We can see the vibrations in the gear speed w and the load speed w caused by gear backlash, and a strong torsional vibration of the shaft caused by the stepwise disturbance input.

~+-;cl:mce:

*$

!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .I.. ....................................
j ....................................

-100

-....................................
.............

i...............................

-200

.(..

..........

..................

Real

Fig.7 Root loci of the closed loop system using PID controller, Parameter: N d - 1

4. Proposed Speed Control

In order to heighten the damping of the mechanical resonances, in this chapter, we proposed a simple control method of the speed control drive system with backlash by consulting the Resonance Ratio Control [6] and reference [7]. The controller is designed using PI controller and PD (proportional and derivative) feedback compensation of the gear torque estimated by a disturbance observer as shown in Fig.8.

a-

Fig.6 Simulation results using PID controller for the 3M system with backlash

Fig.8 Block diagram of speed controller

633

In Fig.7, we can see the pole's positions of the closed loop system continuously change with the nonlinear gain N (4 -1). therefore if the poles of the closed loop system corresponding to N=l can be placed far from the imaginary axis (i.e. the mechanical vibration's damping are added), the mechanical vibrations including the gear vibration and the shaft vibration can be suppressed. The following analyses will show that the mechanical vibration's damping can be controlled by designing the controller's gains Kp, Ki, KR and &f. The designing approach of the controller's gains focuses on the following (a)-(d) four steps: (a) In the first step, we taken the gain Kp as a change parameter and described the root loci of the closed loop system as shown in Fig.9(a). where Ki=ll2.36 from eq.(7) and KP~=K~FO. We can see when the gain Kp is taken as Kp=19, the mechanical resonance's damping can be weakly added. (b) In this step, we taken the gain Ki as a change parameter and described the root loci of the closed loop system as shown in Fig.9(b), where Kp=19 and KwGfrO. We can see in Fig.9(b). the mechanical resonance's damping do not very change with the gain K;, therefore to speed the time response speed, we take the gain Ki as &=140.
(c) In tlis step. we taken the feedback gain K P as a change ~ parameter and described the root loci of the closed loop system as shown in Fig.9(c). where Kp=19, Ki=llo and

200

................................

100

.... ...................................... ................................... Kp=O A--~p=19 /...................................... +...................................... 4...............................

$---

&

7
' 1

-100

..............................

\ ......................................

i
i

.....................................

*
0
i

...............................

._

i ...................................

.-

-200

-30

-20

-1 0

10

Real

(a) K,=112.36, Kpf=I+O,

Parameter: Kp=O^.W
....,.......................

ZOO

y
23 3
2

_ .................................... ................... ................................. . : x--- a i 0 Ki=o : .................................. ................... A--- Kif140

! .
) .

0 0 : :

-100

1: gJ: 1
......................

i
I

- ..................................... i................... ....................................

\ I
j

......................................

....................................

-200 -200-

. . . . . . . . . . :...............
-20 -10
0

-30

IO

Real

(b) Kp=19, K w h ~ 0 Parameter: I+O-W .

_ ..................................

i......................................

i .................

%---

Kpf=O

gear-resonance. poles '

._

A--- K p f m l

I
poles

.............. ........... f 2

Kdf=o.
We can see in Fig.g(c), the gear-resonance damping can be weakly added when K p O . however, if the value of gain K P is taken too big, the shaft-resonance damping will be ~ reduced, therefore as a compromise design result, we take the gain K P as Kpr-1. ~
(d) In the last step, we taken the feedback gain Kdf as a change parameter and described the root loci of the closed loop system as shown in Fig.9(d), where Kp=19. &=140 and K w l . Fig9(d) shows that the gear-resonance damping can be greatly added by the gain Kdf. moreover a proper value of the gain &f can add the shaft-resonance damping, therefore the differential feedback of the gear torque is very effective for the suppression of the mechanical vibration. As a +.7. proper design result, we take the gain &fas I 0 0 5
-150

: .:
i

......................

.................................

, .....................................

4/ ......................cy :
.................................
j

-200'-

......................

; .........................

.............

(c) Kpz19, Ki=140, Q F O . Parameter: K d - w

-100

-5 0

Real

(d) Kp=19, &=140, K w 1 , Parameter: K&)-o3 Fig.9 Root loci of the closed loop system(N=l)

634

Fig.10 shows the root loci of the closed loop system using the proposed controller where the change parameter is

N (=0&1).
Comparing Fig. 10 with Fig.7, we can see the damping of the mechanical vibrations can be greatly added by using the proposed control method. To clarify the effectiveness of the gear torque feedback compensation, Fig. 11 shows the gain frequency response bode plots of the open loop speed control system from the input motor torque to the motor speed with and without the gear torque feedback compensation for three values of the nonliuear gain N (N=0.25,0.5. 1). When without the gear torque feedback compensation (i.e. K,,f=Kdf=O). the resonant peaks illustrate the effects of the mechanical resonances. The resonant peaks in the lower frequency range (8- 10Hz) are the shaft-resonances and the resonant peaks in the higher frequency range (17-3OHz) are the gearresonances. However it can be seen that with the backlash compensation using the gear torque feedback, the resonant peaks can be so reduced that the stability of the open loop speed control system be added.
200
I

stable command response characteristic without the gear vibration and its disturbance rejection effect is also excellent. Moreover, as shown in Fig.13, its control performances hardly change with the parameter deviations in the 3M system.

a
0

0.

5:

2
- 2I

.......-

t;
x
0 1

r h d . (

Fig. 12 Simulation result using the proposed controller for the 3M system with backlash

-150

-100

-50

Real

Fig.10 Root loci of the closed loop system using the proposed controller, Parameter: N=O-1

Frequency tiizl

Fig. 11 Frequency responses of the open loop speed control system from T, to W, Using the proposed controller, the simulated time response of the controlled system with a gear backlash ( 6=1 degree, Kg=2000 Nmlrad) is shown in Fig. 12. By comparison with ~ i g . 6 ,we can see the control performances are clearly superior than those of the PID controller. It has a quick and

1 l I l( r . .c . .

Fig.13 Simulation result using the proposed controller for the 3M system with parameter deviations

635

The parameters of the 3M system used in Fig.13 were JL=J,X66%, Jg=JgnX50%, Kg=KgnX25%, & = K n X

66%. 6 = 6 n X200%, where J J,,, Kgn, l , & , 6 used the values of the table 1. The simulation result in Fig. 13 confirms that the proposed speed controller well stabilizes the 3M system with gear backlash in spite of parameter variations. Fig.14 and Fig.15 show the experimental results of the speed response to the speed reference and the disturbance torque by using the PID controller and proposed controller, respectively, where the 3M experimental system parameters are also the Tablel. All controllers are implemented with the digital signal processor, TMS320C14E. Moreover, in order to kill the high frequency noise, the time constants of the disturbance observer and the differentiator used in the experiment are slower than that used in the simulation. The time constants used in the experiment and the simulation were 10[ms] and 1[ms] respectively. Due to the handicaps of the experiment conditions, the measurable physical variables are only motor speed, load speed and gear torque detected by torque meter. Same as the simulation results, in Fig14 we can see the gear vibration in the command response of the load speed due to the gear backlash, and the torsional vibration of the shaft caused by the stepwise disturbance input. However, when using the proposed controller, the gear vibration was suppressed well and the shaft vibration was suppressed to a certain extent as shown in Fig. 15. We think that as a result of the slow time constants, the shaft vibration was not suppressed well.

Fig. 15 Experimental results using the proposed controller

5. Conclusion
In this paper, we proposed a simple control method of speed control drive system with a torsional load and a gear backlash. The analysis results on the pole assignment of the closed loop system show that the differential feedback of the estimated gear torque is very effective for the suppression of the mechanical vibrations including the shaft-resonance and the gear-resonance (Fig.9d). The effectiveness of the proposed method is shown by b t simulations and experiments. oh

References
[l] R.Dhaouadi. K.Kubo and M.Tobise, Analysisand Comp

Fig.14 Experimental results using the PID controller

ensation of Speed Drive Systems with Torsional Loads PCC-Yokohama, pp. 271-277.1993 [2] S.Futami, N.Kyura and S.Nanai, A Collision-freeControl Method of Servomechanism with Backlashusing Microcomputer JSPE, vo1.50,No.ll,pp.1791-1797.1984 [3] H.Umida, H.Ito and KOzaki, Control and Analysis of Torsional Vibration with Backlash National Convention Record IEE Japan, 666.1994 [4] S.Manabe, Novel Control Strategies of Torsional Vibration System: Coefficient Diagram Method National Convention Record 1EE.Japan-IndustryApplications Society, S. 12-7,1994 [qY .Hon. Controlof 2-Inertia System only by a PID Contr1995 oller T E E Japan, vol.llS-D,No.l,pp.86-87, [ T.Murakami, Novel Control Strategies of Torsional Vibq ration System: Resonance Ratio Control National Convention Record 1EE.Japan-Industry Applications Society, S.124.1994 [T K.Sugiura and Y.Hori, Three-Mass-SystemControl Based on Differential Feedback of the Estimated Disturbance National Convention Record 1EE.Japan-Industry Applications Society, 274,1994

636