Control Engineering (EE3004)*

July - Nov, 2018

Instructor: Dr. Ramkrishna Pasumarthy

Assignment 2
Due Date: September 05, 2018

Instructions
• Assignment solutions should be submitted in A4 sheets. Solution done on any other kind of page or pages torn from
copies will not be accepted.

• Students willing to submit the assignment as .pdf file, written in MS Word or Latex, can do so. Email the *.pdf file
to any of the TAs.
• Assignment shall be submitted on the due date. Late submissions will not be entertained. If any student is unable
to submit the assignment due to some reasons, please contact the TA by email before the deadline.

• Name and Roll No. along with course no. and assignment no. should be written very clearly at the top of the first
page of the submission.
• If any submission is found to be copied from another both the students will be penalized for the entire semester.
Adopting unfair means is strictly prohibited.

Problems
1. Consider the problem of finding the transfer function of a single link manipulator actuated by a DC motor as shown
in the figure 1. Link rotation θl is related to motor rotation θm by θl = m θm . Also assume that there are no energy
loss at the gear tooth contacts i.e. T1 θm = T2 θl .
(a) Find the equations of motion of Gear 1.
(b) Find the equations of motion of Gear 2 plus the link.
(c) Find the equations of motion for the whole system.
(d) Given the model of the DC motor (shown in figure 2), find the dynamical equation governing the DC motor.
The value of the inductor can be assumed to be considerably small or zero. The torque and the back emf
constants are represented by kt and kg .
(e) Use the motor dynamics equation in the equations of motion for the whole system to get overall mechatronic
behaviour for the single link manipulator.
(f) Assuming zero initial conditions, use Laplace Transform to find the transfer function, θ̇m (s)/V (s),where θ̇m (s)
denotes the angular velocity and V (s) denotes the input voltage to the motor.
2. Consider the positioning servomechanism system as shown in Figure 3, where
* Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras

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Control Engineering (EE3004) Dept. of Electrical Engineering, IITM

Figure 1: Single link manipulator actuated by a DC Motor

Figure 2: Model of a DC servo motor

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Control Engineering (EE3004) Dept. of Electrical Engineering, IITM

Figure 3: Positioning Servomechanism

V → Supply voltage to the input and output potentiometers

θi → Deflection in the input potentiometer
θo → Deflection in the output potentiometer
θm → Maximum deflection of the potentiometers
Jm → Inertia of the motor
Bm → Viscous damping of the motor
ia → Current through the motor armature
Ra → Armature resistance
Km → Torque constant of the motor
Kb → Back emf constant of the motor
N1 , N2 → Number of gear teeth in the gears
JL → Inertia of the rotating disk load
BL → Viscous damping of the rotating disk load

Eo (s)
Determine the transfer function Θi (s) of the system. Also draw the block diagram for the given system with θi (t) as
input and eo (t) as output.
3. Consider the system shown in Figure (4,5). The purpose of the system considered is to control the positions of the
fins of an aircraft. Due to the requirements of improved response and reliability, the surfaces of modern aircraft are
controlled by electric actuators with electronic controls called as fly-by-wire control system. Figure 4 illustrates
the controlled surfaces and the block diagram of one axis of such a position-control system. Figure 5 shows the
analytical block diagram of the system using an armature controlled DC motor. Neglect the effects of saturation of
the amplifier gain and motor torque, gear backlash, and shaft compliances.

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Control Engineering (EE3004) Dept. of Electrical Engineering, IITM

Figure 4: Attitude control of an aeroplane

Figure 5: Block diagram of an attitude control system of an aircraft

The system parameters are given as:

Gain of encoder Kn = 1 V/rad
Gain of pre-amplifier K = adjustable
Gain of power amplifier K1 = 10 V/V
Gain of current feedback K2 = 0.5 V/A
Gain of tachometer feedback Kt = 0 V/rad/sec
Armature resistance of motor Ra = 5Ω
Armature inductance of motor La = 0.003H
Torque constant of motor Km = 7.06154 × 10−3 Nm/A
Back-emf constant of motor Kb = 0.0636 V/rad/sec
Inertia of motor rotor Jm = 7.06154 × 10−7 kg.m2
Inertia of load JL = 7.06154 × 10−5 kg.m2
Viscous-friction coefficient of motor Bm = 3.531 × 10−5 Nm/s
Viscous-friction coefficient of load BL = 7.06154 × 10−3 N.m/s
θy 1
Gear-train ratio between motor and load N= =
θm 10
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Control Engineering (EE3004) Dept. of Electrical Engineering, IITM

Draw the detailed block diagram of the attitude control system and determine the transfer function. Find out the
electrical time constant of the amplifier-motor system and the mechanical time constant of the motor-load system.

4. The purpose of a sun-seeker control system is to control the attitude of a space vehicle so that it will track the sun
with high accuracy. Consider the tracking is accomplished only in one plane. A schematic diagram of the system is
shown in Figure 6.
The principal elements of the error discriminator are two small rectangular silicon photovoltaic cells mounted
behind a rectangular slit in an enclosure. The cells are mounted in such a way that when the sensor is pointed at
the sun, a beam of light from the slit overlaps both cells. Silicon cells are used as current sources and connected in
opposite polarity to the input of an op-amp.
The current output of the cells are directly proportional to the length of illumination of the respective cell. For
example, if oa(t)
¯ ¯
= ob(t) then ia (t) = ib (t) = I. Any difference in the short-circuit current of the two cells is sensed
and amplified by the op-amp. Because the current of each cell is proportional to the illumination on the cell, an
error signal will be present at the output of the amplifier when the light from the slit is not precisely centred on
the cells. This error voltage, when fed to the servo-amplifier, will cause the motor to drive the system back into
alignment.

Figure 6: Schematic Diagram of a Sun-Seeker System

Let the angle made by the solar axis w.r.t the reference axis is θs (t) at time t and that made by the vehicle axis w.r.t
the reference axis is θo (t). C is the height of the cell, W is the width of the slit through which the sun rays enter.
L is the distance of the cells from the error discriminator and n is the gear ratio. Consider the DC motor to be an
armature controlled DC motor with usual parameters Ra , La , Km and Kb . The motor to output gear ratio is n i.e.
θm /θo = n. Draw the block diagram of the system and determine the transfer function.

5. In a d.c. position control servomechanism the load is driven by a motor supplied with constant armature current.
The motor field current is supplied from a d.c. amplifier, the input t o which is the difference between the voltages
obtained from input output potentiometers. The sketch of the system is shown is Figure 7.

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Control Engineering (EE3004) Dept. of Electrical Engineering, IITM

The load and the motor together have a moment of inertia of J = 0.4 kg-m2 and the viscous friction is f = 2
Nm/rad/sec. Each potentiometer constant is K p = 0.6 V/rad. The motor develops a torque of KT = 2 Nm/A of field
current. Neglect the time constant of the field.
(a) Find the transfer function θM (s)/θR (s) when switch S is open.
(b) Find the value of the amplifier gain KA to give a natural frequency of 20 rad/sec.
(c) A tachogenerator of negligible inertia and friction is connected in the system to improve the damping. Deter-
mine the tachogenerator constant (in V/rad/sec) to give critical damping for KA = 5. (Hint: Switch S is closed
in this case.)

Figure 7: Schematic Diagram of DC position control servomechanism

6. Classically, the quarter-car model is used in the study of vehicle suspension systems and the resulting dynamic
response due to various road inputs. Typically, the inertia, stiffness, and damping characteristics of the system as
illustrated in Figure 8 are modelled in a two degree of freedom (2-DOF) system. M is the mass of the quarter vehicle
or the sprung mass and m is the mass of the tyre or unsprung mass. ke and ce are the spring stiffness and damping
coefficient of the suspension, and kt and ct are the spring stiffness and damping coefficient of the tyre. x1 and x2 are
the vertical displacements of the sprung and unsprung mass respectively. x3 is the road undulation impacting on the
tyre.

To increase ride comfort the suspension is controlled actively using a DC motor and a rack & pinion system. The
arrangement is shown in Figure 9. Consider the DC motor to be an armature controlled DC motor with resistance
Ra , inductance La and constants Km and Kb where symbols have their usual meaning. V is the input voltage to the
DC motor and the output angle is θm . Find the transfer function between the input voltage of the DC motor and the
vertical displacement of the sprung mass relative to ground level. Assume the flux in the DC motor is constant.

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Control Engineering (EE3004) Dept. of Electrical Engineering, IITM

Figure 8: Quarter vehicle model for suspension system

Figure 9: Quarter vehicle model for suspension system