t P .

r g m o n
Int. J. Mach. Tools Manufact. Vol. 36, No. 6, pp. 713-728, 1996
Copyright 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd
Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved
0890-6955/96515.00 + .00
0890- 6955( 95) 00055- 0
T HE RE GUL AT I ON OF P OS I T I ON E RROR I N C ONT OURI NG
S YS T E MS
R. J. SEETHALERt and I. YELLOWLEYt
(Received 15 July 1994; in final form 3 May 1995)
Ab6t r aet - - The aulLhors discuss t he use of a novel hardware configuration i n t he cont rol of posi t i on er r or
duri ng cont our i ng operat i ons. The archi t ect ure descri bed allows real t i me er r or cont rol i n mul t i pl e axis
systems; t hi s is achi eved by allowing any axis wi t h a phase lag which exceeds t hat specified, t o slow down
t he ent i r e system unt i l i t is i n conformance. The performance of t he system is demonst r at ed by bot h
si mul at i on and exper i ment , using corneri ng and circular i nt erpol at i on as examples. The maj or cont r i but i on
of t he work is t hought to be t he ability of t he system t o cope, i n real t i me, with system const rai nt s and
nonl i neari t i es. Copyri ght (~) 1996 El sevi er Science Lt d
1. I NTRODUCTI ON
In t he last decade considerable effort has been devot ed to t he design of high speed
contouring algorithms. The simultaneous devel opment of faster comput er hardware,
has also had a significant impact on t he feasible level of complexity in control strategies
and t he bandwi dt h of t he measuring subsystems.
The probl em of reducing pat h error or individual axis errors may be achieved t hrough
path preproce,;sing, in which a dynami c model of t he machine system is utilised in t he
pat h planning process (Pak [1], has given a recent machi ne tool rel at ed exampl e). The
paper which follows is, however, concerned with t he real time control of error, which
from a viewpoint of practice, is perhaps a mor e recent activity. Several ot her authors
have exami ned this area, notably Tomizuka, [2, 3], who has at t empt ed to minimise
pat h error t hrough t he achi evement of as close as possible to zero phase lag bet ween
t he command and actual position of each axis. The essence of t he work described by
Tomi zuka is t he use of a compensating filter which attempts to cancel t he dynamics
of t he control loop; it should be evident that this t ype of approach presupposes a good
knowledge of plant structure and parameters. Additional problems are likely with any
such system due to physical constraints and nonlinearities; in t he case of t he previous
work, t he aut hors have suggested ways to avoid large accelerations and i ndeed later
work by Weck [4] has proposed a solution to this probl em which involves placing a
low pass filter in front of t he controller. The solution proposed by Weck alleviates t he
amplifier saturation probl em and in practice, has been shown to lead to an improved
performance in corner tracking.
A rat her different approach to t he minimisation of path error has been i nt roduced
by Kor en [5, 6], who sets out to minimise path error, while still allowing actual
individual axi,; position errors. The approach requires t he calculation of a pat h error
from t he individual errors of t he individual axes. It t hen uses this pat h er r or to
compensat e t he individual axes. The strategy suggested by Koren requires very fast
hardware to allow this procedure of cross coupling errors to be achieved in a realistic
fashion.
The approach t aken in this paper is i nt ended to allow t he possibility of controlling
error in real t i me, even in those cases where constraints such as amplifier saturation
are encount ered. The approach derives much from t he architecture of a control system
t De pa r t me nt of Mechani cal Engi neeri ng, Uni versi t y of Bri t i sh Col umbi a, Vancouver, Canada V6T 1W5.
713
714 R. J . Seethaler and I. Yellowley
architecture devel oped at t he University of British Columbia [7]. A brief description
of t he architecture is given in t he following section.
2. UBC CONTROLLER
The controller utilises either t he 8 bit STD or 32 bi t STD 32 Bus. The master
processor is an I NTEL 80X86. In typical cases up to 15 axis slave controllers may be
installed. The software system includes a two stage interpolation syst em and, in t he
work described in this paper, t he mast er updates t he position of each slave every
16 msec (this corresponds to approximately four times t he velocity loop time constant
of t he axis servos). The slave processors are usually based upon I NTEL 80C196
microcontrollers; t hese i mpl ement loop closing, a digital lead lag filter and a second
stage interpolation process. The controllers interpolate 32 times bet ween every mast er
position, t he l oop is closed at t he same time leading to a servo updat e rat e, in this
case, of 0.5 msec. The first and second stage interpolation frequencies are i mport ant
paramet ers in controlling t he path error.
The architecture, which is shown in Fig. 1, ensures that most of t he workl oad is
t aken from t he mast er and t ransferred !o t he slave controllers and that t he requi red
bandwidth of t he bus is reduced for any fixed number of slaves and servo updat e time.
The maj or additional feat ure of t he architecture is t he addition of parallelism t hrough
t he use of so-called state lines to connect t he axis slaves and t he process/technology
slaves. Each of t he state lines represents an ANDI NG of t he condition of all boards
which write to it, t hey are usually achieved, physically t hrough t he use of open collector
lines. The normal mode of use of t he line is to have each board write and read from
t he lines at t he end and start, respectively, of t he second stage interpolation cycle.
The result in t he simplest case of a single state line which is used in this application
is one of t he following:
(a) Should t he line be high t he interpolation and control functions go ahead as
normal.
(b) Should t he line be low, t he past interpolation step is repeat ed, i.e. no furt her
position is added to t he position command; t he loop is however closed normally.
One may see t hen that t he effective command velocity may be reduced t hrough t he
use of t he single state line, and that any of t he slaves, ei t her axis slaves or process
slaves, may achieve this end, t he final velocity achieved t hen being det er mi ned by t he
tightest of t he constraints. A previous paper, Ref, [8], has exami ned t he use of this
mechani sm in force control.
2.1. Basic interpolation system
The position increments calculated by t he first stage interpolation system which runs
on t he mast er, are t ransferred over t he backplane (STD or STD32) to buffers in biport
Master
CPU
80x86
STD BUS
Slave
CPU
Axis I
Slave
CPU
Axis 2
Coordinating line
State line
Front plane Bus
Fig. 1. UBC controller architecture.
Slave
CPU
Axis 3
F
w
r
Regulation of Position Error in Contouring Systems 715
r am on each of t he axis slaves. The slave processors t hemsel ves t hen per f or m a second
stage i nt er pol at i on or splining of posi t i on. The aim of t he syst em is t o allow a hi gh
accuracy of fitting t he commanded pat h wi t hout requi ri ng ei t her a large comput at i onal
effort at t he mast er or a hi gh bandwi dt h in t he communi cat i on system. The part i cul ar
i nt erpol at i on scheme whi ch is used is parabol i c in nat ur e and was chosen t o mi ni mi se
comput at i on [9]. The scheme assumes t hat poi nt s are evenl y spaced in t i me, and t hat
t her e is a linear variation in velocity over each mast er sampl i ng peri od. Thi s leads t o
t he following f or mul a for di spl acement
x = Xi + [Xi+l - x i ] t [Xi +2 - Xi ~ A~ - Xi q - Xi - 1 ] " (~ -- -2att)
(1)
wher e 0 -< t -'-: At, x is t he commanded di spl acement at t i me t, Xi is t he cur r ent first
stage i ncrement .
The posi t i on spline of equat i on (1) still allows t he possibility of large discontinuities
in velocity at t he end poi nt s of t he first stage i nt erpol at i on. Thi s will result in t he
commandi ng of large and per haps infeasible accelerations. Thi s pr obl em will be
addressed in a following section which discusses t he so-called velocity spline.
2.2. S ervo l oop
The l oop closing mechani sm i mpl ement ed on each of t he slave mi crocont rol l ers
utilises a si mpl e l ead or lag filter. Repl aci ng this with a cont i nuous filter, leads t o t he
bl ock di agram shown in Fig. 2, which depicts t he experi ment al , per manent magnet ,
d.c. ser vomot or dri ven posi t i on l oop.
Ther e are t wo very i mpor t ant characteristics of t he syst em shown in Fig. 2. Firstly
it has a l i mi t ed accel erat i on due t o current sat urat i on, which is given by,
Xma x = lma x g t ~ ( 2)
and secondl y t her e is a steady-state lag bet ween t he reference and t he actual posi t i on
for a r amp i nput . It may also be poi nt ed out t hat for t he t ype of syst em under
consi derat i on here, this is also t he steady-state lag t o a sinusoidal i nput ( pr ovi ded t hat
t he i nput frequency is significantly less t han t he bandwi dt h) . The magni t ude of t he lag
is given by t he following expressi on,
b Kt sa
d~ - a----K Ke" (3)
2.3. The appl i cat i on o f the state line to the mi ni mi sat i on o f error
The ai m of t he error cont rol pr ocedur e is t he mai nt enance of a small and const ant
level of phase lag bet ween command and actual posi t i on on each axis. The aut hors
will demonst r at e t he use of t he state line t o achieve this end; since a const ant phase
U T ] T d
Fig. 2. Block diagram of position loop.
716 R. J. Seethaler and I. Yellowley
lag requires an axis error which is proport i onal to axis velocity, then t he control of
t he state line requires a knowledge of bot h velocity and position error.
The met hod used t o control error using the state line is to pull the state line low
when t he actual error exceeds t he allowable; any axis may pull the state line low when
this occurs. The allowable error, as ment i oned earlier, is related to velocity, however
since static errors will exist and since one does not wish to reduce the allowable
acceleration and bandwi dt h, t he allowable error is expressed in t he form bel ow,
eaUowabl e = V4 ' "1" 8s t at i c .
(4)
The first t erm allows for t he expect ed error proport i onal to velocity and ~s t at i c allows
for friction induced errors and a reasonabl e level of allowable acceleration. The state
line is allowed to return to a high level once t he actual error is less than t he allowable.
The process described allows the modul at i on of axis velocities in a coordi nat ed fashion
and effectively reduces the frequency of t he reference position component s.
The velocity used to calculate t he allowable error within the controller is a reference
velocity which is calculated by splining t he first stage interpolation increments. The
approach used here is different from that i mposed by the position spline since one
wishes to avoid discontinuities in the velocity. The variation in velocity allowed is again
linear and is shown in Fig. 3. The approach shown in Fig. 3 comprises fixing t he
command velocity at t he j unct i on of t wo first stage intervals to t he average of t he
values over t he t wo increments. It thus t akes t wo mast er sampling intervals to accelerate
from zero to a constant velocity. The velocity spline is described mathematically in
equat i on (5). The velocity spline is not equal to the derivative of the position spline
and in fact if one integrated t he velocity spline t he distances travelled woul d not
correspond to t hose required. The spline is used to calculate allowable error, which
in turn is used through the state line to smoot h and extend the time domain command
signal.
x t]
V(t) = ( Xi + 1 - Xi _ l ) --b ( Xi + 2 - Xi + 1 - X i --[- i - l ) ~
(5)
The most obvi ous approach to t he use of the state line for error control woul d seem
to be t he use of an error criterion in t he form,
lea.ow ab d 1 4 ' V I + 8 stati c .
(6)
The criterion above allows an error band around the actual position, and results in
the state line being triggered when the actual position is leading t he reference position.
Such an approach forces t he system to slow down more than necessary. A sign sensitive
error criterion may be formul at ed as an alternative as follows,
8
- - - - - Ve l o c i t y s pl i ne
Fi g. 3. V eloc i ty spli ne.
Regulation of Position Error in Contouring Systems 717
sign(V) e a l l o wa b l e < sign(V) cb V + ~s t a t i c ( 7 )
The experi ment al results which follow in section 3 use t he criteria in equat i on (7),
t he value of phase used is t he same as would result from t he type 1 system, used i n
response to a ramp input [see equation (3)]. The selection of a value for t he constant
in t he criteria is mor e complex, t he t orque available at standstill must clearly exceed
any frictional loads, however at t he same time one wishes to have t he system respond
to rapid changes in input (ei t her in reference or disturbance). The r equi r ement to
allow high values of acceleration, even when t he velocity is low, leads to t he notion
of det ermi ni ng t he value of ~s t a t i c in t he following fashion,
1
~s t a t i c = ,~rnax K Ka" (8)
This leads to t he expression for t he total value of allowable error as follows,
b Ktsa
eal l owabl e - - V~ --I- ~st at i c = V
1
a K K e + Ima~ KKa" (9)
2.4. The influence oJ: the state line approach on dynamic performance
The system with t he state line inactive simply acts as a normal servo system. In
those cases when t he actual error surpasses t he allowable error, t he system structure
is altered, and it becomes necessary to examine dynamic response and stability.
If one assumes that t he static error, ( ~ s t a t i c ) , is small, t hen according to equat i on
(9), t he error must be,
s R(s) b Ktsa
E(s) - a K Ke (10)
t hen t he velocity error can be expressed in t he following form,
El ( s ) = s R( s) b Ktsa (s + a) S O(s) Ktsa
a Ke (s + b) Ke (11)
t he out put of t he system is t hen,
Ka Kt Ke
O( s ) = El ( s ) ~ - s i
(12)
and t he resulting closed loop transfer function is given by
Ka Kt b Ktsa (s + a)
F(s) = . ( 1 3 )
a (s + b) (Jes + Ka Kt Kt sa)
Since b, Je, Ktsa, Ka and Kt are always positive, t he system will always be stable.
It is interesting to not e that t he system performance is i ndependent of t he compensat or
gain, K and that t h e sYstem becomes a simple lag when t he Compensator is used to
cancel exactly t he velocity loop.
2.5. The selection of appropriate system parameters
Ther e are a number of paramet ers which must be set to reasonable values if t he
state line approach described her e is to be successful. As in all systems, t he compensating
filter must be'. considered. In this case however t he selection of sampling/interpolation
718 R. J . Seethaler and I. Yeilowley
intervals and t he coefficients in t he error criterion used to trigger t he state line are
equally important.
2.5.1. S ampl i ng times. For t he velocity spline to have any possibility to give
satisfactory results, it is necessary to choose a master sampling time that allows t he
system two first stage interpolation periods to slow down from maxi mum speed to zero
speed, thus,
Vma x
N - (14)
2 amax AT
where Vm~x is t he maxi mum traverse velocity, amax is t he maxi mum requi red acceler-
ation, AT is t he second stage interpolation sampling period and N is t he number of
second stage steps t aken for each first stage interpolation increment.
2.5.2. Compens at or paramet ers. The servo loop contains a l ead lag compensat or
that must be utilised to mat ch t he gains of all axes. The servo loop itself is a third
or der system. It is found that good performance is attained when t he compensat or
lead is used to cancel t he velocity loop, this requires that [see equation (13)],
Kt sa Ka K t
a - Je (15)
The phase lag bet ween t he reference and t he actual position is t he same for all axes
and should within most systems be comparable to t he time constant of t he velocity
loop which has been cancelled, thus,
b = d~ K K a K t K e (16)
Je
The next par amet er to be chosen is t he compensat or gain which will be rel at ed to
t he allowable errors. If one follows t he argument given earlier and allows maxi mum
t orque to be devel oped at zero velocity t hen t he gain of t he compensat or is uniquely
defined, [see equat i on (9)], as
ma x
m
K - ~ s t a t i c Ka" (17)
The selection of t he filter paramet ers in t he manner described above, leads to a
simple second or der system with undamped natural frequency and damping ratio given
by t he following expressions,
o . = (18)
~ = ~ J ( ~ ) . (19)
3. THE EXAMI NATI ON OF SYSTEM PERFORMANCE
A high performance servo system was chosen to exami ne system performance. The
experi ment al apparatus consists of a controller, PWIVl amplifiers, and high performance
brushed per manent magnet d.c. servomotors. The servomotors are equipped with
t achomet ers and two t rack 1000 line encoders. The t achomet er signals are fed back to
t he amplifiers while t he encoder signals are utilised by t he control comput er. Figure
Regulation Of Position Error in Contouring Systems 719
[ ] " Ac tuator Computer controller [ Amplifier [
Requi red
posi ti on +/
[BLUI : }
t - - __
Di gi tal filter D/A Converte~ C ur r e nt T orque
~ _ _ . _ . . . I . . . . . . . .
Pl --; : , ; o; . . . . .
I I ~ Ac tuator speed
Ac tual posi ti on [BLU]
Enc od er
_ ~ posi ti on
[BLU]
Fig. 4. Schematic block diagram of position loop.
4 shows a sc, hemat i c block diagram of a single axis of t he system and Table 1 gives
t he values of t he various constants within t he system.
The first phase of t he work concerned with t he evaluation of new control strategies,
involved t he creation of a realistic simulation model of t he system. The program that
was devel oped allows t he examination of t he path performance of an arbitrary number
of axes and t he introduction of nonlinear influences. The maj or nonlinearity in t he
basic system comprises t he current limit of t he amplifier, which is included in t he
simulation. The ordi nary differential equations corresponding to t he analog part of t he
loop were solved using a second or der Runge- Kut t a algorithm, while t he time domai n
equations of t he digital part (including t he state line), were solved directly. The
values of t he various paramet ers in t he model were chosen to correspond to t he high
performance experi ment al servo system, which was also constructed and tested to
validate t he results from t he simulated model. Results from t he experi ment al system
are given in t he next section.
The maj ori t y of t he simulations have been concerned with corner tracking capability.
The path chosen requires one of t he servos to change direction, while t he second may,
in essence, continue at constant velocity. Most of t he simulations of this rat her difficult
cont our have used a nominal speed of 500 rpm (one mot or will thus reverse to - 500 rpm
during t he corner) and 1000 rpm. Figures 5 and 6 show enl argement s of t he simulated
system performance (500 rpm and 1000 rpm). Both figures demonst rat e t he large
overshoot to be expect ed with t he system without t he state line activated. The system
with state line activation essentially corresponds to t he theoretical second stage inter-
pol at ed pat h t hrough t he corner.
Table 1. Experimental parameters
Name Symbol Value Units
Motor torque constant Kt 0.2967
Motor inertia Je 0.9636e-3
Tachometer feedback Ktsa 0.047
Encoder gain Ke 636.6198
Maximum current /max 10
Maximum speed omax 2000
Amplifier gain Ka 13.6136
Amplifier bandwidth fCmp~ or >750
D/A converter gain Kd 0.0049
Filter gain Kp 34.1333
Filter lead parameter A 0.9
Filter lag parameter B -0.333
Master sampling period At 16
Slave sampling period AT 0.5
Position loop ramp phase lag qb 3
Position loop static error 8static 5
Position loop natural frequency o~ 666.67
Position loop damping ratio ~ 1
N m / A
N m s 2
V/(rad/sec)
BLU/rad
A-
rpm
A/V
Hz
msec
msec
msec
BLU
rad/sec
7 2 0 R. J . Se e t h al e r and I . Y e l l o w l e y
3300
E nl ar ge me nt o f corner t r ac k i ng at 500 RPM
o o
3200 ~ . ~ o o
~ e'l \ , , o
3100- .o/ \ t,
, . e / ~ ' \ , o
- .o V " , ~ . , , o
i ~ o
2,002'00 / . / i f / ~, , . o
o
2600
25000 ' , I i i I i i \ i
2600 2800 3000 3200 3400 3600 3800 4000
T h e t a 1 [BLU]
Fi g. 5 . Si mul at e d pat h s i n c o r ne r t r ac k i ng at 5 0 0 rpm: , r e f e r e nc e po s i t i o n ( f i rst s t age i nt e r po l at i o n) ;
- - - , r e f e r e nc e po s i t i o n ( s e c o n d s t age i nt e r po l at i o n) ; o o o, ac t ual po s i t i o n o f s i mpl e s e r vo s y s t e m and
* * * , ac t ual po s i t i o n o f s y s t e m w i t h ac t i ve s t at e l i ne .
E nl ar ge me nt o f c or ne r t rac k i ng at 1000 RPM
1 .4 5 .
l o o
o o
o o
1 . 4 0 0 0
~ m ~ t 0

~ O
y o o
<" _ / / ",~,
~ 1.30 2 ' ~ 0
' , , o
1 .2 5 ~ 1
i.20 I I I I I I I I
1 .2 5 t . 3 0 ! . 3 5 1 .4 0 I A 5 1 .5 0 1 .5 5 1 .6 0 1 .65 1 .7 0 1 3 5
T h e t a 1 [BLU] x 104
Fi g. 6 . Si mul at e d pat h s i n c o r ne r t r ac k i ng at 1 0 0 0 rpm: , r e f e r e nc e po s i t i o n ( f i rst s t age i nt e r po l at i o n) ;
, r e f e r e nc e po s i t i o n ( s e c o n d s t age i n t e r po l at i o n ) , o o o, ac t ual po s i t i o n o f s i mpl e s e r vo s y s t e m and
* *, ac t ual po s i t i o n o f s y s t e m w i t h ac t i ve s t at e l i ne .
4. E XP E RI ME NT AL VERI FI CATI ON
E xperi ments h ave b een c ond uc ted usi ng th e system d epi c ted i n Fi g. 2 . T h e fi rst
seri es of experi ments h ave exami ned th e prof i li ng o th e c ontour s h ow n i n Fi g. 7 ,
w h i c h i nc lud es t w o sh arp c omers , as w as th e c ase i n th e si mulati on. T h e experi ment
w as c ond uc ted at nomi nal speed s of 5 0 0 and 1 000 rpm. T h e ac tual perf ormanc e o f th e
system i n traversi ng t h e fi rst c orner w i th a nomi nal speed of 5 0 0 rpm i s s h ow n i n Fi g.
9. I t sh ould b e not ed th at th e met h od of gath eri ng d ata i nvolves t h e c alc ulat i on o f
ref erenc e posi ti on th rough th e ad d i ti on of error t o c urrent posi ti on. T h i s proc ess i s
c ard ed out at t h e master and may i n some c i rc umstanc es b e out , of ph ase b y one peri od
( 0 . 5 ms ec ) . T h i s i s t h e reason f or th e rath er c h oppy prof i le of th e ref erenc e pat h d ata.
T h e maxi mum path error w i th th e state li ne ac ti vated i s less th an t w o d egrees, i n
c ontrast t h e path tak en b y th e b ase system ( no state li ne ac ti vati on) i s sh ow n i n Fi g.
8 and d i splays approxi mately 2 6 d egrees of path error.
R egulati on of Posi ti on Error i n C ontouri ng Systems 721
150
10~
50
o
0
o
,.C
F-, -50 -
-100 -
-150
-100
X- Y Posi ti on
/ \ \ . \
I I 1 I I \ ~ "" I I
0 1130 200 300 400 500 600
T h eta I [ d eg]
700
Fig. 7. C orner trac k i ng w i th a si mple servo c ontroller: soli d , master posi ti on spli ne; d ash ed , ref erenc e
posi ti on and d as h - d ot , ac tual posi ti on.
E nlargement of c ontouri ng path
of si mple servo at 500 RPM
150[ k / / ~
1
/ \
145 F / \
/ / / ~ \ \
o
.~. tual path \
140 \
o
135 \
\
R ef erenc e path \ \
\ \
13o I I \ I \
60 8 0 100
x- D i rec ti on [ d eg]
Fig. 8. E nlargement of c ome r trac k i ng servo w i th out state li ne ac ti vati on at 5 0 0 rpm: soli d , ref erenc e posi ti on
and d ash ed , ac tual posi ti on.
T h e c orres pond i ng si tuati on w i th a nomi nal s peed of 1 0 0 0 rpm i s s h ow n i n Fi gs 1 0
and 1 1 . I n thJi s c ase t h e path errors are 7 d egrees and 90 d egrees f or t h e state li ne and
non- s t at e li ne: b as ed syst ems, respec ti vely.
T h e algori th m us ed t o tri gger th e state li ne i n t h e experi ment s i s th at s h ow n i n
eq uat i on ( 7 ) . T h e i nf luenc e o f t h e state li ne c losi ng i s t o s l o w t h e s ys t em d o w n as i t
pas s es t h rough t h e c orners, h ow e ve r t h e vari ous approac h es t o state li ne d o s i ng lead
t o very d i f f erent c ont ouri ng ef f i c i enc i es. T o b e spec i f i c , t h e c ont our s h ow n i n Fi g. 6 ,
h as a traverse t i me o f 0 . 2 2 5 sec usi ng t h e si mple non- st at e li ne syst em. T h e ad d i ti on
o f t h e state li ne s ys t em vastly red uc es error, h ow e ve r i t i nc reases t h e traverse t i me t o
0 . 2 8 5 sec . T h e us e o f t h e si mplest possi b le state li ne strategy, i n w h i c h t h e error i s
c onstrai ned t o b e less th an a c onst ant amount , lead s t o a c onsi d erab le slow i ng ( a
traverse t i me o f approxi mat ely 0 . 6 8 sec , w h e n t h e max i mum error i s 3 0 BLU ) .
I t i s b eli eve.d th at t h e perf ormanc e i mprove me nt d emons t rat ed b y t h e s ys t em i s f ai rly
i mpressi ve, gi i ven t h e f ac t th at t h e ampli f i ers are saturated d uri ng t h e c orneri ng oper-
7 2 2 R. J . Seeth aler and I . Y ellow ley
,5 o I
1 4 5 ~
u
.g
I
135
130
E nlargement of c ontouri ng path of
UBC c ontroller at 5 0 0 RPM
/f'
i i \ \
6O 8O
x- D i rec ti on [(leg]
1 00
Fig. 9. E nlargement of c ome r trac k i ng of servo w i th state li ne ac ti vati on at 5 0 0 rpm: soli d , ref erenc e posi ti on
and d ash ed , ac tual posi ti on.
E nlargement of c ontouri ng path of si mple servo at 1000 RPM
7 0 0
6 8 0
f
660 / \
/ \
g 64 0, / \
"~ 6 2 o i / \
~" 600 A c tual path \
5 8 0
5 6O I I
300 400 500
x-Direction [deg]
\
\
\
\
Fig. 10. C lose- up of c ome r trac k i ng w i th out state li ne ac ti vati on at 1 000 rpm: soli d , ref erenc e posi ti on and
d ash ed , ac tual posi ti on.
ati on. Wh i l e t h e ac tual perf ormanc e of any syst em i s h eavi ly d e pe nd e nt on th e q uali ty
and perf ormanc e of t h e b asi c c ontrol c ompone nt s , t h e evaluat i on of t h e state li ne
syst em on t h e b asi s of t h e si mple perf ormanc e i nd i c ator s h o w n i n e q uat i on ( 2 0 ) , w oul d
lead one t o b el i eve th at i t i s relati vely suc c essf ul, t h e i nd ex b e i ng 1 5 0 0 and 8 0 0 f or
5 0 0 and 1 0 0 0 rpm, respec ti vely. ( T h e d i f f erenc e b ei ng attri b utab le t o t h e more severe
prof i le req ui rement s and t h e l onger peri od of saturati on i n t h e c ase of t h e h i gh er
nomi nal vel oc i t y. )
pat h veloc i t y
"q - pat h error ( 2 0 )
T h e s e c ond seri es of experi ment s w ere c onc erned w i t h c i rc ular i nt erpolat i on and
Regulation of Position Error in Contouring Systems 723
Enlargement of c ontouri ng path of
UBC controller at !000 RPM
i f Actual path
g
5
x-Direction [degl
Fig. 11. Close-up of corner tracking with state line activation at 1000 rpm: solid, reference position and
dashed, actual position.
hence related to frequency response. The state line system of course will not exhibit
t he usual form of frequency response since at hi gher frequencies it will stretch out
periods of high acceleration to avoid error. Before continuing to a consideration of
t he system performance it is as well to examine t he constraints which apply to this
particular mode of interpolation.
The most obvious constraint on any circular interpolation system is set by t he
i nt erpol at or itself, which must ensure that t he maxi mum position error ( r ef er ence to
t heoret i cal ), :is less t han 1 BLU, see Fig. 12. For t he two stage interpolation system
used here, it has been shown [9, 10], that
J(4 2.6667]
2~r A tfm~ x = V \ ~ / " (21)
The maxi mum frequency of circular interpolation is thus rel at ed to t he radius and
t he first stage interpolation time. The maxi mum allowable velocity of t he system also
places a limit on t he maxi mum allowable frequency of circular interpolation. Accordi ng
to Seet hal er [111] this leads to t he following constraint,
O~max = 2"tr fm~x rmax.
(22)
The third and final maj or constraint is that due to current saturation of t he amplifier.
In this case t he maxi mum t orque and acceleration are limited leading to t he following
HTH 38-6-E
U
Fig. 12. Circular interpolation.
724 R. J . Seet hal er and I. Yel l owl ey
6
~5
o = -4
3
Radi us vs f r equency
~x
I - I I I I L I I I I . . . . . .
0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.0
Radi us [BLU] x 10 4
Fi g. 13. Maxi mum radi us vs maxi mum f r equency: dot t ed l i ne, l i mi t i ng vel oci t y const r ai nt ; das hed l i ne,
l i mi t i ng accel er at i on const r ai nt and sol i d l i ne, posi t i on spl i ne const r ai nt .
Otma x m / ma x g t~ ee = ( 2 ~r f ma x ) 2 r ma x . ( 2 3 )
The relative i mport ance of t he t hree constraints for the system under consideration
are shown in Fig. 13. It is seen that the maximum velocity constraint is only active at
low frequencies and large radii. For t he system under consideration with a slave
sampling time of 0.5 msec and a master sampling time of 16 msec, the t wo constraints
meet at refit = 5900 BLU and r e f i t = 2.9 Hz. At radii less than refit t he position spline
imposes t he domi nant constraint. At radii higher than t he critical radius, current
saturation is dominant. ( Not e t he state line cannot i mprove t he situation if the position
spline constraint is vi ol at ed. )
If one at t empt s to use reference commands along the position spline constraint for
radii larger than refit, t he state line should pull the actual response down to t he limiting
acceleration constraint line. This means that the out put frequency will be reduced,
however clearly considerable distortion of the time domain waveform will result (the
axes will still be coordi nat ed).
Two experiments have been conduct ed, in t he first a feedrat e has been chosen which
will not saturate t he system. During the course of t he first experiment, t en circles were
cont oured and t he third is shown in Figs 14 and 15. The state line is not activated in
t hese experiments. Tabl e 2 gives t he pertinent geometric parameters.
Figure 14 shows t he actual path during the low feedrat e experiment. The system is
able to follow the cont our well. No state line is .needed, because the saturation limit
is not reached. The actual pat h error formed from consideration of errors on each
axis, is shown in Fig. 15, from which it is seen that t he maximum value of axis error
is approxi mat el y 45 BLUs.
In t he second experiment, t he f ee&at e was chosen such that current saturation and
the maxi mum requi red speed woul d make it impossible for the simple servo (wi t hout
state line activation) to follow the path. Tabl e 3 shows t he paramet ers for this exper-
iment.
Tabl e 2. Par amet er s for l ow f eedr at e ci rcul ar i nt er pol at i on
Name Val ue Uni t s
Fr equency 3 Hz
Radi us 5000 BLU
Feedr at e 94248 BLU/ s e c
,.d
no
4O
31 f
20
I
-101-
Regulation o f Position Error in Contouring Systems
Path during circular interpolation
6OOO
Z(
-4OOO
-60001 I I I I 1 I I I I
-5000 -4000 -3000 -2000 -1000 0 1000 2000 3000 4000
x-Axis [BLU]
Fig. 14. Path of low fee&ate circular interpolation experiment.
-20
-30
- 4 0
-513
5 t o 1 5 2 0 2 5 3 0 3 5 4 0 4 5
5000
Path error during circular interpolation
S a mp l e s
Fig. 15. Path error of servo system during low feedrate experiment.
Table 3. Parameters for high feedrate circular interpolation
725
Name Value Units
Frequency 3 Hz
Radius 8000 BLU
Feedrate 150796 BLU/sec
1:0000
Path during circular interpolation
,.-1
m
8000
7000-
6000-
5000- i ~
4 0 0 0 -
31 1 1 1 1 1 -
I 0 0 0
0 2o00 400o 6000 8ooo Ioooo t2000
x-Axi s [BLU]
Fig;. 16. Path of the simple servo system during the high feedrate experiment.
Figure 16 shows t he actual path described by t he two axes during t he high feedrat e
experi ment using t he servo systems without state line activation. The system is not
able to follow t he r ef er ence pat h, because acceleration levels have driven t he amplifiers
into saturation, and t he requi red velocity exceeds t he maxi mum velocity of t he actuators.
726 R. J . Seet hal er and I. Yel l owl ey
8 0 0 0
6 0 0 0 i
4000
20oo
m
o
m
-2000
~ -4ooo
-6000
-8000
Pat h duri ng ci rcul ar i nt erpol at i on
45000 -4000 -2000 2000 4000 6000 8000
x- Axi s [BLUI
Fi g. 17. Pat h of ser vo syst em wi t h act i ve st at e l i ne dur i ng hi gh f eedr at e exper i ment .
Pat h er r or duri ng ci rcul ar i nt er pol at i on
60
4O
20
0
m
-2o
~ . 4 o
.60-
- go
I 0 2 0 3 0 40 50 60 7 0 8 0 9 0 1 0 0
Sampl es
Fig. 18. Pat h er r or of ser vo syst em wi t h act i ve st at e line dur i ng hi gh f e e &a t e exper i ment .
Figure 17 shows t he path described by the same t wo servos with the state line activated.
T h e ac tual path error i s s h ow n i n Fi g. 1 8 and i s s een t o h ave a maxi mum val ue o f
7 8 BLU .
4.1. Traverse time and velocity for circular interpolation
While t he state line system has been shown to be effective in controlling error, it is
in or der t o examine the efficiency with which it performs this function. Of most interest
is a comparison bet ween t he performance of t he real time system with t he best that
could be achieved with t he application of a dynamic model, in a preprocessing stage.
The section which follows calculates t he theoretical change in peri od which woul d
result from such a procedure.
A
Fi g. 19. I nf l uence of a const r ai nt on t he t i me t aken t o t r aver se a ci rcl e.
R egulat i on of Position Er r or in Cont ouri ng Systems 727
T ab le 4. ExpeEimental veloc i ty measurements and c ompari son w i th b est attai nab le i n a preproc essor
Ori gi nal frequency Ori gi nal peri od Fi nal peri od
( Hz ) ( ms e c ) ( ms ec ) Peri od rat i o Cal cul at ed peri od rat i o
333 333 1 1
250 250 1 1
200 208 1.04 1
167 189 1.13 1.13
2O
0
-20
LII
2
8 d o
T i me [ r eset ]
1000
Fig. 20. Pat h er r or for servo wi t h no state li ne ac ti vati on (6 Hz).
20
10
0
- I o
- 20
-30
-4C
0 200 400 600 800 1000
Ti me [ mseel
Fig. 21. Pat h er r or for servo system w i th state li ne ac ti vated (6 Hz).
D uri ng c i rc ular i nterpolati on, w i th a t orq ue c onstrai nt, t h e c ont ouri ng veloc i t y mus t
b e red uc ed at f our poi nt s . Fi gure 1 9 b e l ow , s h ow s t h e proc ess w h ere only a si ngle axi s
h as suc h a c onstrai nt. T h i s f i gure s h ow s a s ys t em f ollow i ng a si ne w ave w i th ampli t ud e
A , t h e s ys t em starts slow i ng d ow n at t i me t l . T h e t i me req ui red t o travel f rom t l t o
t h e maxi mum d i splac ement i s lab eled At.
I n t h e ease w h ere b ot h axes h ave th e s ame c onstrai nt ( and t h es e d o not ove rl ap) ,
t h e rati o o f t h e ac tual peri od t o th at programmed i s gi ven b y
728 R. J . Seethaler and I. Yellowley
R =
2q + 2At - ~/2to
rr/2to
(24)
where:
tl = l s i n - l (Imax Kt K e l
to \ t o2AJe ]
(25)
A to cos(to tl)
At - Ke (26)
I max g t ~ e
A separat e set of experiments was conduct ed to track carefully t he timing of t he
circular interpolation. These used t he same paramet ers as given i n Tabl e 1. It should
however be said that t he actual amplifiers used were different. In this new series
frequencies from 4 to 6 Hz wer e chosen with t he radius set at 2000 BLU. The setting
of a very accurate current limit was found to pose some considerable probl ems (in fact
t he current limit varies slightly on some axes dependi ng upon direction and t ype of
input). Since t he actual current limit will exert a very large influence on t he performance
of t he system, a mor e realistic approach was t aken as follows. The limit was set to
approximately 15 A on each axis and t he frequency of circular interpolation increased
until saturation occurred. The performance at a higher frequency was then examined
and compared with that achievable by a preprocessor. The dat a are shown in Tabl e
4. It is seen that t he system j ust sat urat ed at 5 Hz; at 6 Hz, t he ratio of bot h t he state
line controlled peri od and that which woul d have been achieved by a preprocessor are
equal at 1.13. The actual performance in controlling error is demonst rat ed in Figs 20
and 21, where t he effectiveness of t he state line is again evident.
5. CONCLUSIONS
A new approach to the minimisation of error in contouring is proposed; t he met hod
is based upon the control of error as a function of a predi ct ed velocity. The mechanism
used to control error is t he modul at i on of velocity using a logic line (state line), which
is written to and read from by each axis slave processor within an open architecture
control system. The system has been t est ed through simulation and experi ment and
shown to perform well in bot h corner tracking and circular interpolation.
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