Optimal Control of a Flexible Mechanism Using a Combined Feedforward-Feedback Strategy: Simulation and Experiment

Author(s):  
Hubertus v. Stein ◽  
Heinz Ulbrich

Abstract Due to the elasticity of the links in modern high speed mechanisms, increasing operating speeds often lead to undesirable vibrations, which may render a required accuracy unattainable or, even worse, lead to a failure of the whole process. The dynamic effects e.g. may lead to intolerable deviations from the reference path or even to the instability of the system. Instead of suppressing the vibration by a stiffer design, active control methods may greatly improve the system performance and lead the way to a reduction of the mechanism’s weight. We investigate a four-bar-linkage mechanism and show that by introducing an additional degree of freedom for a controlled actuator and providing a suitable control strategy, the dynamically induced inaccuracies can be substantially reduced. The modelling of the four-bar-linkage mechanism as a hybrid multi body system and the modelling of the complete system (including the actuator) is briefly explained. From the combined feedforward-feedback optimal control approach presented in (v. Stein, Ulbrich, 1998) a time-varying output control law is derived that leads to a very good system performance for this linear discrete time-varying system. The experimental results show the effectiveness of the applied control strategy.

2006 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip S.L Anderson ◽  
Mark W Westneat

Placoderms are a diverse group of armoured fishes that dominated the aquatic ecosystems of the Devonian Period, 415–360 million years ago. The bladed jaws of predators such as Dunkleosteus suggest that these animals were the first vertebrates to use rapid mouth opening and a powerful bite to capture and fragment evasive prey items prior to ingestion. Here, we develop a biomechanical model of force and motion during feeding in Dunkleosteus terrelli that reveals a highly kinetic skull driven by a unique four-bar linkage mechanism. The linkage system has a high-speed transmission for jaw opening, producing a rapid expansion phase similar to modern fishes that use suction during prey capture. Jaw closing muscles power an extraordinarily strong bite, with an estimated maximal bite force of over 4400 N at the jaw tip and more than 5300 N at the rear dental plates, for a large individual (6 m in total length). This bite force capability is the greatest of all living or fossil fishes and is among the most powerful bites in animals.


Author(s):  
L. Yuan ◽  
J. Rastegar

Abstract A new method for the analysis of the effects of structural flexibility on the dynamic behavior of mechanical systems is presented. The developed method is in most part based on “tracing” the “propagation” of the effects of the high frequency motion requirements on the dynamic response characteristics of machines with structural flexibilities, particularly those with closed-loop kinematic structures. The method considers the “filtering” action of structural elements with flexibility. Such filtering of higher frequency motions is shown to have a predictable effect on the steady state motion of such mechanical system. The main advantage of the developed method is that the effects of such flexibilities can be determined without the need to perform the usual dynamics modeling and computer simulations. The method is shown to be very simple and readily implementable. The method is applied to a four-bar linkage mechanism with a longitudinally flexible coupler link. The obtained results are shown to be highly accurate as compared to those obtained by computer simulation. The application of the method to systematic design of machines with structural flexibility for high speed and precision operation, optimal integration of smart (active) materials into the structure of such machines, and some related issues are discussed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 150 ◽  
pp. 01016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saeed Mohammed ◽  
Chong Chee Soon ◽  
Rozaimi Ghazali ◽  
Ahmad Anas Yusof ◽  
Yahaya Md Sam ◽  
...  

Versatile engineering applications have been developed to assist, reduce, and avoid human being from any heavy or harmful manufacturing processes. The gradually increased demand in force and position controls have simultaneously increased the usage of Electro-Hydraulic Servo (EHS) system. However, the time varying characteristics such as high-speed, outburst starting and stopping dynamic have led the EHS system to suffer from uncertainties and nonlinearities effects. Therefore, in order to enhance the performance of an EHS to surmount the uncertain and nonlinear effects, a hybrid Fuzzy-PID control strategy is developed which particularly improve the accuracy of the system by enhancing the control performance during the positioning tracking. By measuring the performance of the proposed control approach, the transient response and steady-state analysis will be performed which taking linear and intelligent control strategies as the references in the assessment process. The finding indicates the capability of a hybrid Fuzzy-PID controller in reducing the control effort applied to the EHS system.


2001 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. W. J. Lee ◽  
X. Q. Cai ◽  
K. L. Teo

A manpower planning problem is studied in this paper. The model includes scheduling different types of workers over different tasks, employing and terminating different types of workers, and assigning different types of workers to various trainning programmes. The aim is to find an optimal way to do all these while keeping the time-varying demand for minimum number of workers working on each different tasks satisfied. The problem is posed as an optimal discrete-valued control problem in discrete time. A novel numerical scheme is proposed to solve the problem, and an illustrative example is provided.


2015 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 1516-1528 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.H.M. Ariff ◽  
◽  
H. Zamzuri ◽  
M.A.M. Nordin ◽  
W.J. Yahya ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
L. Yuan ◽  
J. Rastegar

Abstract A new method is presented for the modification of the output motion of linkage mechanisms with closed-loop chains using cams positioned at one or more of its joints. In particular, the method is applied to a four-bar linkage mechanism that is synthesized for function generation for the purpose of eliminating the high harmonic component of the output link motion. By eliminating the high harmonic component of the output motion of a mechanism, the potential vibrational excitation that the mechanism can impart on the overall system, including its own structure, is greatly reduced. The resulting system should therefore be capable of operating at higher speeds with increased precision. For mechanisms with rigid links, the primary source of high harmonic motions is the nonlinearity of the kinematics of closed-loop chains. With the present method, the higher harmonic motions generated due to such nonlinearities are eliminated by the integration of appropriately designed cams that are used to vary the effective link lengths. A numerical example is provided together with a discussion of the related topics of interest.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document