Realization of a hard disk drive head servo-positioning system with a voltage-driven voice-coil motor

 In this paper we describe a head servo-positioning system for hard disk drives (HDDs), in which the usual current command for the voice coil motor has been replaced by a simpler voltage command. Current command of the voice coil motor (VCM) has been preferred so far, due to its good performance in terms of robustness. With this solution, in fact, the characteristics of the system to be controlled by the servo-controller are rather independent from all possible variations of electrical impedance of the VCM and power supply voltage. However, this solution has some drawbacks. In fact, in order to realize the current command, a current loop uses a shunt resistor as a current sensor and a linear high power operational amplifier with some phase-shaping network as a current driver. Both shunt resistor and linear amplifier are major sources of power dissipation. Moreover, linear amplifiers need a large area on the silicon chip, increasing the cost of the power device. On the other hand, a fully digital current loop would require a costly A/D converter, and this is one of the reasons why the current controller is still implemented in analog way, thus impeding the implementation of smart control strategies at this level. All the above considerations have led to the realization of a servo system with a voltage-driven VCM. We developed a solution in which current measurement is no longer needed in order to guarantee the correct behavior of the servo controller. The solution is based on a digital, multi-rate pre-filter, driving a voltage amplifier. The filter is designed in such a way that the transfer function between input signal and VCM current is close to that of a standard current loop, so providing a one-to-one replacement to standard current drivers. With the proposed solution, no measurement on the VCM current or voltage is required. It can be shown that with a proper tuning of the pre-filter, the proposed solution exhibits a good robustness against variations of VCM parameters. Since the proposed solution is fully digital, digitally driven switching power stages can be used. Experimental results, including those related to robustness issues, show that the HDD servo-positioning performance obtained with the new voltage-driven system matches that obtained with a standard current loop, in both seek and track following operations. Finally, in order to adapt the pre-filter to operating conditions, an on-line parameter estimation procedure, capable of determining VCM windings resistance, is presented. Received: 20 June 2002 / Accepted: 12 September 2002     

VCM design with round coil and axe-shaped magnet for hard disk drive actuator

In this paper, we proposed a novel single-sided magnet voice coil motor (VCM) design that can reduce out-of-plane force. Out-of-plane force of a VCM causes the actuator vibration, which results in settling vibration and acoustic noise. The proposed single-sided magnet VCM consists of a round coil and an axe-shaped magnet. We designed the optimized configuration by using numerical magnetic field simulation and compared its performance with those of a conventional VCM. Torsional moment was reduced by 90% at the worst position of the middle track, and bending moment was reduced by 50% at the worst position of the inner track compared with a conventional VCM. Rotational moment in our VCM was almost the same as that of the conventional one. We manufactured an actuator with the new design VCM and confirmed that the new single-sided magnet VCM shows a good performance as expected, although its magnet volume and coil resistance were almost the same as a conventional design. The measured frequency response of the actuators from the coil current to the head displacement showed that the coil torsional mode vibration of the proposed VCM is reduced remarkably.     

Settling control with reference redesign for dual actuator hard disk drive systems

This paper considers settling control of a recording head for a dual actuator system for hard disk drives consisting of a coarse actuator (voice coil motor, VCM) and a fine actuator (peizoelectric transducer, PZT). The design method proposed in this paper is called the dual actuator reference trajectory re-design (RTRD). In this method, the design is divided into three steps. In the first step, the coarse actuator loop is designed to achieve stability and basic performance. In the second step, the fine actuator path is designed by loop shaping for superior performance of the overall system. Finally, the reference signals are generated for both the coarse and fine actuators by minimizing the square integral of jerk during the transition. The reference signals are updated or redesigned in real time as the recording head approaches the target track for smooth landing and minimal residual vibration. The “soft switching” technique is applied for gradually introducing the fine actuator (PZT actuator), which may shorten the settling time and achieve a smooth settling response. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is evaluated by simulations.     

硬盘驱动器准滑模自适应鲁棒控制方法

提出一种硬盘驱动器鲁棒自适应准滑模控制方法, 该方法在仿真和实验中有效地克服了跟踪扰动信号的影响, 极大地提高了硬盘驱动器的跟踪速度, 使系统稳态、动态性能和鲁棒性都得到很大的改善.     

An intelligent approach to position control of a hard disk drive

A new self-tuning neuro-proportional+integral+derivative (PID) controller is proposed and applied to position control of the magnetic head in a hard disk drive. The proportional, integral, and derivative gains are tuned using two types of neural network, which reduces the burden of trial and error by human operators. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed method over several conventional control methods. This work was presented in part at the Fifth International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, January 26–28, 2000     

Evolutionary design and implementation of a hard disk drive servo control system

The ever increasing demand for higher storage capacity and smaller magnetic hard disk drives have driven the need of developing a high performance head positioning servo control system. To meet the challenge, this paper presents the design and real-time implementation of a robust two-degree-of-freedom servo system for physical 3.5-in. hard disk drive with single voice-coil-motor actuator using a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm toolbox. Besides the simplicity in controller structure, such an evolutionary servo control system is capable of meeting various performance specifications of hard disk drives in both the time and frequency domains. It is shown that the servo system optimally moves the magnetic head onto the desired track with minimal control effort, and keeps it on the track robustly against plant uncertainties or runout disturbances. Validation results of the evolutionary servo control system are compared with classical PID and RPT controllers, which show excellent closed-loop response and robustness in the face of practical perturbations in HDD.     

Track-following control of a dual-stage hard disk drive using a neuro-control system

This paper describes the track-following control of a dual-stage hard disk drive system using neural-networks. A neural-network approach to on-line learning control, and a real-time implementation for a dual-stage hard disk drive, are presented. The use of the dual-stage actuator in hard disk drive systems has become a means of achieving increased servo actuator bandwidth. The dual-stage actuator presented here uses a voice-coil motor (VCM) as a coarse actuator, and a piezoelectric actuator (PZT) as a fine actuator. The control system consists of a series combination of both a plant with a feedback loop and a neural-network with a feedforward loop. The neural-network functions as the reference input filter, and it organizes a new reference signal to the closed-loop circuit. Numerical and experimental results for the track-following control system of the dual-stage hard disk drive show the validity of the proposed neuro-control system.     

The dimensional effects of windowing on crosstalk for high speed hard disk drive interconnects

As the areal density rapidly changes, the signal reflection increases. In order to avoid the reflection between a magnetic recording head and a read/write driver on hard disk drive interconnects (HDDIs), the windowing technique is used to keep low insertion loss and it causes the higher crosstalk between lines. In this work, the crosstalk on idealized HDDI with windowing is investigated. The crosstalk represented by the scattering parameters calculated by using the full wave simulation software based on finite integral technique. From the results, the improvement of insertion loss and transmission bandwidth (?3 dB bandwidth) can be found when the window percentage is increased. For the 90% windowed structure, these are improved as 4.27 dB at 1 GHz and 4.53 GHz comparing with the conventional structure, respectively. Besides, the crosstalk increases with the increasing of window percentage. However, it can be suppressed up to 5.68 dB in a range of 0.24–1 GHz when the window percentage is 90%. Furthermore, the 90% of windowed structure with 8 mm window pitch possess the lowest crosstalk about 30.22 dB in a range of 0.32–6.4 GHz. In addition, the placing position of windows in a reference plane with a half of the rest length at both ends should be avoided because it increases both crosstalk and insertion loss. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 24:217–222, 2014.     

3-DOF planar parallel-wire driven robot with an active balancer and its model-based adaptive control

This paper has proposed a parallel-wire driven robot (PWDR) with an active balancer, which is notably useful for such applications as ceiling maintenance and object conveyance near a ceiling in a factory. Because this robot is an under-actuated system, the uncertainty of the inertial parameters of the load strongly affects the resultant motion and reduces the control accuracy because of the dynamics interference. However, to date, the dynamics of this robot has not been thoroughly elucidated. Thus, this study analyzes the dynamics of a PWDR that controls three degree-of-freedom using two wires and an active balancer. Moreover, based on the dynamic analysis, a model-based adaptive controller for the parameter uncertainty of a load is proposed, and its effectiveness is demonstrated through simulation.     

A modified direct torque control with fault tolerance

The use of inverters in induction motor control has reduced classical motor faults, such as broken rotor bars or windings short-circuit, besides improving control performance. The control becomes faster and more precise, reducing peaks in current and torque, so that the motor can have a softer operation. On the other hand, new elements are included in the system and it will be necessary to take into account their faults. These elements are sensors and power electronic devices that since a control point of view are the system sensors and actuators. Fault tolerance tries to maintain the system under control in case a fault appears in the system. If this is not possible, it takes the system to a safe operational point. In this paper a fault-tolerant control for induction motors is designed. Based on a direct torque control, new control strategies have been added in case current sensor and power switch faults are detected. The challenge is to overcome these faults without any physical redundancy of sensors or power switches as other authors propose. With the proposed control, it will be possible to guarantee the motor operation in the whole speed-torque range with one or none current sensors instead of the two usually used, though the performance will be slightly worsened. In case of inverter faults, the operation range will be restricted but the performance with respect to the fault situation is improved.