A stable friction compensation scheme for motion control systems

In mechanical positioning control systems, friction phenomenon makes undersirable responses. Friction compensation scheme is frequently implemented to the control system together with the friction estimator in order to cancel the effect of the friction. However, the error in the estimation of the friction results in undercompensation or overcompensation, which also makes undesirable responses. In this paper, a new friction compensation scheme is proposed. The stability analysis is performed based on the circle criterion, which provides a sufficient condition for asymptotic stability of a system. For an application example, the scheme is implemented to a mechanical positioning system of a second-order plant with nonlinear friction. The effectiveness of this scheme is illustrated with the time responses obtained by computer simulation.