A new design method for PI–PD control of unstable processes with dead time

PID controllers are still widely practiced in the industrial systems. In the literature, many publications can be found considering PID controller design for unstable processes. However, owing to the structural limitations of PID controllers, generally, good closed loop performance cannot be achieved with a PID for controlling unstable processes and usually a step response with a high overshoot and oscillation is obtained. On the other hand, PI–PD controllers are proved to give very satisfactory closed loop performances for unstable processes. The paper presents a simple design method to tune parameters of a PI–PD controller for the control of the unstable processes with time delay. The proposed method is based on plotting the stability boundary locus, which is a locus dependent on the parameters of the controller and frequency, in the parameter plane. The method uses a new concept named centroid of the convex stability region. Simulation examples and an experimental application are given to illustrate the superiority of the proposed method over some existing ones.     

Active nonlinear partial-state feedback control of contacting force for a pantograph–catenary system

In this paper, a nonlinear partial-state feedback control is designed for a 3-DOF pantograph–catenary system by using backstepping approach, such that the contacting force of the closed-loop system is capable of tracking its reference profile. In the control design, the pantograph–catenary model is transformed into a triangular form, facilitating the utilization of backstepping. Derivatives of virtual controls in backstepping are calculated explicitly. A high-order differentiator is designed to estimate the unknown time derivatives of elasticity coefficient; and an observer is proposed to reconstruct the unmeasurable states. It can be proved theoretically that, with the proposed nonlinear partial-state feedback control, the tracking error of the contacting force is ultimately bounded with tunable ultimate bounds. Theoretical results are demonstrated by numerical simulations.     

A new numerical analysis for piston skirt–liner system lubrication considering the effects of connecting rod inertia

A new numerical analysis for the piston skirt is conducted to consider the effects of the connecting rod inertia on the piston skirt–liner system lubrication. The piston dynamics, the oil film and the friction loss of the system are analyzed and compared with one earlier model that has been adopted widely. The results on a gasoline engine show that the connecting rod inertia does have some influence on the system lubrication as well as the piston dynamics, especially when engine runs at high speeds.     

A control system for the “shashlyk” forward calorimeter in the PANDA experiment

The use of soft- and hardware, in particular, the EPICS software environment and the Control System Studio, for building the control system of the “shashlyk” calorimeter in the PANDA experiment is described. The control unit of the Cockcroft–Walton generators, as well as the processing of its data using single-board Raspberry Pi computers, is briefly described.     

A coupled thermal–mechanical analysis of a mold-billet system during continuous casting

The three-dimensional (3-D) thermal–mechanical behavior of a mold–billet system under actual casting conditions is investigated with an finite element approach, taking into account the main influencing factors, such as solidification heat, latent heat released during phase transformation, heat transfer, as well as the interaction between the moving billet and the mold. It is based on the coupled thermal–mechanical analysis for the whole mold–billet system, instead of analyzing the thermal–mechanical behavior of the mold and the billet individually, as is often used in practice. Comparison shows that the former approach can provide satisfactory results without making use of the empirical estimation of the heat flux through the inboard surface of the mold based on the difference between the temperature of inlet and outlet cooling water at steady-state and the temperature distribution near the surface of the inboard plate measured experimentally, which are usually necessarily required for the latter approach to be applied in practice.     

A calibration system for microwave radiometers based on a modulator–calibrator

A system for automatic internal calibration of millimeter-range radiometers is described. This system is based on an electrically controlled modulator–calibrator, which is a compact solid-state device that combines the functions of a modulator and a source of stable noise calibration signals. Stability of the calibration levels is provided by thermostatting the modulator–calibrator case and stabilization of the control currents. The calibration and data-collection process is governed by software using a special digital module and a personal computer.     

A practical control method for precision motion—Improvement of NCTF control method for continuous motion control

The present paper describes a practical control method for a precision motion system and the performance thereof. For practical use, high motion control performance and ease of design and controller adjustment are desired. A nominal characteristic trajectory following control (NCTF control) has been investigated to realize high performance and ease of application of point-to-point (PTP) positioning. The controller comprising a nominal characteristic trajectory (NCT) and a PI compensator is free from exact modeling and parameter identification. In the present paper, the NCTF control is modified in order to improve the control performance of continuous motions such as tracking and contouring motions. The NCTF controller for continuous motion (referred to as Continuous Motion NCTF controller) has a structure that is almost identical to the conventional NCTF controller and is designed using the same design procedure. The Continuous Motion NCTF controller is applied to ball screw mechanisms, and its motion control performance is evaluated from the experimental tracking, contouring, and positioning control results. The experimental results prove that the Continuous Motion NCTF controller achieves the same positioning performance as the conventional NCTF controller, and generally achieves better continuous motion control performances than PI-D or conventional NCTF controllers. In 0.25 Hz and 100-nm radius circular motion, the experimental tracking errors for Continuous Motion NCTF were smaller than 10 nm.     

Nonlinear predictive control for Hammerstein–Wiener systems

This paper discusses a nonlinear Model Predictive Control (MPC) algorithm for multiple-input multiple-output dynamic systems represented by cascade Hammerstein–Wiener models. The block-oriented Hammerstein–Wiener model, which consists of a linear dynamic block embedded between two nonlinear steady-state blocks, may be successfully used to describe numerous processes. A direct application of such a model for prediction in MPC results in a nonlinear optimisation problem which must be solved at each sampling instant on-line. To reduce the computational burden, a linear approximation of the predicted system trajectory linearised along the future control scenario is successively found on-line and used for prediction. Thanks to linearisation, the presented algorithm needs only quadratic optimisation, time-consuming and difficult on-line nonlinear optimisation is not necessary. In contrast to some control approaches for cascade models, the presented algorithm does not need inverse of the steady-state blocks of the model. For two benchmark systems, it is demonstrated that the algorithm gives control accuracy very similar to that obtained in the MPC approach with nonlinear optimisation while performance of linear MPC and MPC with simplified linearisation is much worse.     

An adaptive inverse control method based on SVM–fuzzy rules acquisition system for pulsed GTAW process

This paper proposes a new method of adaptive inverse control based on support vector machine–fuzzy rules acquisition system (SVM-FRAS) for the gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) process. In this control mechanism, an identifier is established based on SVM-FRAS, and an inverse controller based on SVM-FRAS is designed. The proposed adaptive inverse control method can automatically extract control rules from the process data. Comprehensibility is one of the required characteristics for a complex GTAW process control. We use the proposed SVM-FRAS-based adaptive inverse control method to obtain the rule-based process and the control model of the aluminum alloy pulse GTAW process. Based on the simulation experiments for GTAW process, the SVM-FRAS adaptive inverse control method is found to be effective.     

A phase-locked loop system for 7–18 and 37.5–78-GHz commercial microwave generators

A phase-locked loop system for widespread Γ4–84, Γ4–111, Γ4–141, and Γ4–142 microwave generators, whose operating ranges cover a frequency range of 7–78 GHz, is described. The phase-locked loop uses a rubidium frequency standard.     

A calorimeter for detecting hadrons with energies of 10–100 GeV

A calorimeter for detecting hadrons in the energy range 10–100 GeV is described. It is used at CERN in the NA58 (COMPASS) experiment aimed at studying the nucleon structure and spectroscopy measurements of charmed particles. The calorimeter is composed of 480 modules with a cross section of 15×15 cm², assembled in a matrix with dimensions of 4.2×3 m² and a central window of area 1.2×0.6 m². In each module are 40 iron and scintillator layers of a total thickness of 4.8 interaction lengths. The energy resolution of the calorimeter for hadrons (pions) and electrons and the spatial resolution, determined on the test beams, are $\frac{{\sigma _\pi (E)}}{{E[GeV]}} = \frac{{59.4 \pm 2.9}}{{\sqrt E }} \oplus (7.6 \pm 0.4)\% ;\frac{{\sigma _e (E)}}{{E[GeV]}} = \frac{{24.6 \pm 0.7}}{{\sqrt E }} \oplus (0.7 \pm 0.4)\% $ , and σ _x,y ≈ 15 mm, respectively. The average value of the e/π ratio that characterizes the amplitude responses of the calorimeter to electrons and pions with equal energies from the above range is 1.2 ± 0.1. This study was performed at the JINR Laboratory for Particle Physics.     

Nonlinear control of voltage source converters in AC–DC power system

This paper presents the design of a robust nonlinear controller for a parallel AC–DC power system using a Lyapunov function-based sliding mode control (LYPSMC) strategy. The inputs for the proposed control scheme are the DC voltage and reactive power errors at the converter station and the active and reactive power errors at the inverter station of the voltage-source converter-based high voltage direct current transmission (VSC-HVDC) link. The stability and robust tracking of the system parameters are ensured by applying the Lyapunov direct method. Also the gains of the sliding mode control (SMC) are made adaptive using the stability conditions of the Lyapunov function. The proposed control strategy offers invariant stability to a class of systems having modeling uncertainties due to parameter changes and exogenous inputs. Comprehensive computer simulations are carried out to verify the proposed control scheme under several system disturbances like changes in short-circuit ratio, converter parametric changes, and faults on the converter and inverter buses for single generating system connected to the power grid in a single machine infinite-bus AC–DC network and also for a 3-machine two-area power system. Furthermore, a second order super twisting sliding mode control scheme has been presented in this paper that provides a higher degree of nonlinearity than the LYPSMC and damps faster the converter and inverter voltage and power oscillations.     

Robust H ∞ sliding mode control with pole placement for a fluid power electrohydraulic actuator (EHA) system

In this paper, we exploit the sliding mode control problem for a fluid power electrohydraulic actuator (EHA) system. To characterize the nonlinearity of the friction, the EHA system is modeled as a linear system with a system uncertainty. Practically, it is assumed that the system is also subject to the load disturbance and the external noise. An integral sliding mode controller is proposed to design. The advanced techniques such as the H _∞ control and the regional pole placement are employed to derive the optimal feedback gain which can be calculated by solving a necessary and sufficient condition in the form of linear matrix inequality. A sliding mode control law is developed such that the sliding mode reaching law is satisfied. Simulation and comparison results show the effectiveness of the proposed design method.     

Wayside system for wheel–rail contact forces measurements

The system for assessment of the wheel–rail contact forces can be used for multiple purposes, among them for estimation of the train running safety, for train axle load measuring or wheel flats detection, as well as for the other research analyses. As the wheel–rail rolling contact moves along the track during train motion, it is very difficult to establish a reliable and accurate system for measuring of contact forces. Measurement principle of the wayside system, presented in this paper, is based on rail strains measurements using strain gauges, connected into the Wheatstone bridges in a smart way, in order to achieve signal proportional to applied load. This principle uses independent component analysis (ICA) model in combination with system calibration for successful separation of vertical and lateral contact forces from recorded strain signals. In addition, the system provides identification of the contact point position on the rail during train passing over it, which further expands the possibilities of its application to wheel–rail wear analysis, contact geometry optimization etc.     

A modernized control system of the “Victoria” pulse modulator complex

The results of designing an automated control system (ACS) of the Victoria pulse modulator complex, which is used for the high-voltage power supply of auxiliary plasma heating systems on the Т-10 and Т-15 tokamaks and gyrotron test benches, are considered. The ACS is based on digital and microprocessor devices and ensures control of the power circuit of high-voltage modulators, monitoring of the load parameters, and emergency protection of the power electrical equipment.     

A Spectral–Thermal Bench with a Special Fiber-Optic Probe–Objective for Measuring Diffuse-Reflection Spectra

The results of tests of a new fiber-optic probe–objective for measuring both IR diffuse-reflection spectra and other types of spectra of solids at various temperatures are presented. In comparison with the conventional devices, the new scheme for measuring diffuse-reflection spectra has such advantages as the minimum distortion of spectra by the specular and Fresnel diffuse components of the reflection from surface irregularities and the linearity of the concentration dependences. The use of a fiber-optic probe–objective provides the ability for the simultaneous analysis of the solid phase and outgoing gases with increasing temperature and calibration of the spectral methods using the thermogravimetric-analysis data. An example of monitoring the process of drying catalysts in laboratory studies when analyzing composite and other materials is used to consider the prospects for using the probe–objective.