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Abstract
A robust proportional plus derivative (PD) controller of the gap between an electrode and a workpiece is designed to tolerate the
bounded gain variation related to the generation of powder in the gap and the nonlinearity of the feedback signal. The robustness
dened by HN shows that the robust PD controller can tolerate the nonlinear and time-varying feedback signals. As shown, the
performance of H2 ; under a constraint on HN robustness, the proposed PD controller exhibits optimal tracking performance. The
gain parameters of the PD controller that maximize tness, as specied by the inverse of the integral of the squared error, given a
step input to the system, can be determined quickly and accurately using genetic algorithms (GAs). The control performance and the
rate of erosion of die-sinking electric discharge machinings are conrmed to follow from the proposed design procedure.
r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Robust performance; PD controllers; Nonlinear systems; Time-varying systems; Genetic algorithms; Machining; Electric discharge
machine
I. Introduction
Die-sinking electric discharge machines (EDMs),
electric discharge scanning machines (EDSMs) and
wire-cutting electric discharge machines (WEDMs) are
frequently used in machining modes. The period of
machining is quite long because the metal removal rate
(MMR) is low. When an intermittent, high voltage is
applied between the electrode and the workpiece, the
EDMing process occurs in the gap between them, and
the workpiece material must be removed from the gap.
The removal rate depends on the gap between the
electrode and the workpiece, which declines as the gap
becomes longer, and becomes zero when the gap is
sufciently large. The rapid and stochastic generation of
the metal and carbon particles always disturbs the gap in
which they are generated and cannot easily escape.
Therefore, a servo controller, depicted in Fig. 1, cannot
drive the electrode toward the workpiece at a constant
feed rate, unlike conventional machine tools (Reda,
1979; Meyer, 1987).
During EDMing, the effective pattern of the discharge pulses shown in Fig. 2 consists of a supplied
*Corresponding author. Tel.: +886-485-118-882462; fax: +886485-112-24.
E-mail address: yfchang@mail.dyu.edu.tw (Y.-F. Chang).
0967-0661/$ - see front matter r 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.conengprac.2004.02.007
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Y.-F. Chang / Control Engineering Practice 13 (2005) 95104
96
.
e(s)
r(s)
Gap
Controller
fr(s)
Discharge
Power
Supply
Servo
Drives
Interpolator
+
+
y(s)
Pulse
Characteristics
Detector
Electrode
_
de (s)
Workpiece
Td
1>
T
Ton
1) Ch 2:
Toff
20 Volt 200 us
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Y.-F. Chang / Control Engineering Practice 13 (2005) 95104
ks
fr s;
s2 2xon s o2n
97
45
Nc=2.125V/m
40
T
y[V]
35
30
25
20
1>
15
10
5
0
1) Ch 2:
2 Volt 200 ms
10
20
d [m]
30
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Y.-F. Chang / Control Engineering Practice 13 (2005) 95104
98
r (s)
_
f r(s)
e(s)
k p+k d s
+
y(s)
Nc (1+ N )
-k s
V(s)
s2 + 2 n s + 2n
d( s)
k
k0
k0 bk s : The symbols ak k=0
to m and bk k=0 to m1 are the parameters of the
polynomials. The value of Jm kp ; kd is given in the
published tables (Stefani et al., 1994; Jury & Dewey,
1965). In this study, the linear approximation should be
made by disregarding the perturbation of the feedback
term DN in Eq. (7). The response of error es to the
input of a step can be determined as follows using
Eqs. (1), (3), (4), (7) and (8) subject to DN 0 when the
reference is set as a constant rt rs rs rs =s:
es
s3 2xon s2 o2n Nc ks kd s Nc ks kp As
11
12
13
r (s)
+_
C(s)
P(s) (1+W(s))
y(s)
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Y.-F. Chang / Control Engineering Practice 13 (2005) 95104
ks kp ks kd s
s3 2xon s2 o2n s
15
and
Ps Nc :
16
PjoPjoCjoCjokjokjo
sup
1 PjoCjo1 PjoCjo
oA0;N
s
bo
sup
ao
oA0;N
s
bo
sup
oA0;N ao
p1:
99
19
20
1pkp p31;
0pkd p1;
21
17
1
:
J3
18
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Y.-F. Chang / Control Engineering Practice 13 (2005) 95104
100
arc length
10%
40%
15%
35%
mating pool
(reproduction)
crossover
mutation
decoding
F t (k p ,k d ) > Ftmax
yes
save kp and k d
and F tmax = F(kp ,k d )
Fig. 8. Flow chart of the GAs used to determine maximal tness and
gain parameters.
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4. Design procedure
According to the preceding analysis, the design
procedure of a PD controller for an EDMing gap
control system can be described as follows:
(a) All parameters of the servo driving system, including ks ; x and on can be derived by identifying the
system.
(b) Measuring the gain distribution using the actual
erosion enables the average gain Nc of the nonlinear
and time-varying feedback signals to be obtained,
as shown in Fig. 4.
(c) According to the RouthHurwitz criterion (Stefani
et al., 1994), the nominally stable region in kd kp
gain space, which guarantees that the poles of the
characteristic equation of the nominal system are all
to the left of the complex plane, is determined rst.
(d) Inside the region, determined in step (c), the subregion that satises the requirement of HN robust
stability in Eq. (17) is determined.
(e) The parameter domain that will be used in the GAs
search is determined.
(f) In the parameter domain, the optimal pair kp and
kd with the maximal 1=J3 tness under the HN
constraints in Eq. (17), is obtained using the
successive GAs as shown in Fig. 8.
The following practical application of the gap control
system on a die-sinking EDM is considered to highlight
the performance of the robust PD controller.
80486
r (t)
e( t)
_
+
Human-machine interface,
part program interpreter,
I/O logic control
PD
Controller
f r (t)
Interpolator
Position
controller
ADSP21061
D/A
d(t)
D/A
()
Servo
Driving
System
V(t)
Discharge
Power
Supply
A/D
Electrode
Osciloscope
y( t)
Gap Voltage
Filter
d e(t)
Workpiece
101
rad2 mm
:
s3
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102
1>
1) Ch 2:
2 Volt 200 ms
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Y.-F. Chang / Control Engineering Practice 13 (2005) 95104
1>
1>
(a)
103
1) Ch 2:
(b)
2 Volt 200 ms
2 Volt 200 ms
1>
(c) 1) Ch 2:
1) Ch 2:
1>
(d) 1) Ch 2:
2 Volt 200 ms
2 Volt 200 ms
1>
(e)z 1) Ch 2:
2 Volt 200 ms
Fig. 13. Actual position records of EDMing system with gains: (a) (30,0.52), (b) (21, 0.7), (c) (21, 0.3), (d) (10, 0.52) and (e) (21, 0.52).
that are sensitive to nonlinear and time-varying perturbations of the feedback gain. The rate of erosion falls
because the electrode oscillates. The low gain parameters cause responses that are insensitive to nonlinear
and time-varying perturbations in the feedback gain.
However, the slow response of the actual gap also
reduces the rate of erosion. The robust gain parameters
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104
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the National Science
Council of the Republic of China for nancially
supporting this research under Contract No. NSC902212-E-212-024.
References
6. Conclusions
The gap control system with optimal Ft kp ; kd
satises the needs of an EDMing system that includes
a nonlinear and time-varying feedback device. The
following conclusions are drawn:
(a) A discharge process can be treated as a nonlinear
and time-varying perturbation. A perturbation with
an average gain should be considered in the design
of a robust PD controller.
(b) The optimal performance, with maximal Ft kp ; kd ;
under a constraint on HN can be obtained by
seeking the gain parameters kp and kd that
maximize the inverse of the integral of the squared
error of the system. GAs can be used to determine
the optimal gain parameters of the PD controller.
(c) Both simulation and an actual die-sinking EDMing
process with optimal Ft kp ; kd robustness exhibit
good robust control performance. The rate of
erosion of the system with optimal robustness also
exceeds the rates obtained without optimal robustness.
The design procedure can also be applied to other
machining systems, including the focusing system of a
laser-cutting machine, the contour tracking system of a
layout machine and the in-process geometrical compen-