Electrorheological damper for the ultra-precision air bearing stage

This paper illustrates how the electrorheological damper substantially improves the performance of the ultra-precision air bearing stage. Smart materials such as electrorheological fluids have attracted many researchers’ attention because of their resistance changeable performance in different electric fields. Meanwhile, the ultra-precision air bearing stage driven by the linear-motor is characterized by zero mechanical damping and poor anti-disturbance. To solve this problem and consider the characteristics of electrorheological fluids, an electrorheological damper is proposed in this paper. The electrorheological damper’s characteristics in high electric fields are obtained based on the Eyring constitutive model, which smoothly transits from the pre-yield to post-yield region. To enhance the performance of the electrorheological damper, which takes effect only when the stage is going to decelerate or position, the on-off and sliding mode control methods design and optimize the controller. The results prove that by using the advanced sliding mode control method, the characteristics of the ultra-precision air bearing stage can be effectively improved through the introduction of the electrorheological damper.