Applications of integrated motion controllers for precise CNC machines

The error resources of precise motion control systems are basically categorized into linear and nonlinear effects. To realize the precise motion of industrial computer numerical control (CNC) machines, this paper presents an integrated motion control structure with modular algorithms, including both the linear control and the nonlinear compensation. In the linear control design, this study applies three algorithms: (1) feedforward control to address the tracking errors, (2) cross-coupled control to reduce the contouring errors, and (3) digital disturbance observer to lessen the effects of modeling errors and disturbances in real applications. The results indicate that the linear motion controller achieves greatly improved accuracy in both tracking and contouring by reducing the servo lags and mismatched dynamics of the different axes. However, the adverse effect due to friction still exists and cannot be eliminated by applying the linear motion controller only. This study further integrates the nonlinear compensator and develops friction estimation and compensation rules for CNC machines. The digital signal processors are suitable to implement all the developed linear and nonlinear algorithms, and the present controllers have been successfully applied to industrial CNC machines. Experimental results on a vertical machining center indicate that, under different feed rates, the CNC machine with the integrated motion controller significantly reduces the maximum contouring error by 135% on average.