Cables are an integral part of many engineering systems; thus, the control of cables and systems containing cables is an important problem to address. This thesis proposes to use command shaping techniques to reduce command-induced vibration in two cabled systems, a tower crane and an electrodynamic tethered satellite system in low Earth orbit. Systems containing cables often exhibit important nonlinear dynamics, which complicates the application of command shaping. As a first step to demonstrate the effectiveness of command shaping techniques for nonlinear cabled systems, nonlinear tower crane dynamics are investigated. A novel command generation technique for the slewing of tower cranes is presented, and experimental results demonstrate its increased effectiveness. Once improvement of tower crane dynamics has been demonstrated, space tether dynamics are considered. Electrodynamic tethers have the promise to become invaluable propulsive actuators for orbit boost and station keeping. Using electrodynamic tethers, it is possible to boost orbits without the use of propellant because electrical energy is used to produce a Lorentz force that creates orbit boost. Furthermore, electrodynamic tether deboost makes it possible to accelerate the deorbiting of spent rocket stages and other space debris to reduce clutter in the space environment. Unfortunately, the Lorentz force pushes transversely on the cable tether, thereby producing a significant amount of vibration and libration. This thesis proposes to use command shaping techniques to reduce the command-induced vibration from a boosting operation. Intelligent command generation will significantly reduce the amount of tether libration and string vibration. First, flexible tether dynamics in a constant, circular orbit are investigated. The work is then expanded to include the effects of orbit boosting. The robustness of the command generation techniques is established through numerical simulation.

Input shaping and Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) feedback control are simple, easy-to-implement and generally low cost control strategies. Considering this, it is remarkable that they are also very effective control techniques. In fact, a majority of the world's feedback controllers utilize PID (or the subset PD) control. In addition, input shaping has seen significant use on real-world machines such as cranes, micro-mills, coordinate measuring machines, computer disc drive manufacturing machines, spacecraft, etc. However, despite similarities in effectiveness and ease of implementation, input shaping and PID feedback control are fundamentally different strategies. Input shaping is an anticipatory control scheme capable of enabling quick, low-vibration motions. PID feedback control is reactive in nature, and it is primarily required to deal with problems such as modeling errors, disturbances and nonlinearities. Of course, PID control is also used to reduce vibrations (as in the case of input shaping). But, because it is a reactive controller, it is slower than input shaping at eliminating motion-induced vibration. Given their effectiveness and practicality, as well as the fact that they address important and complimentary control issues, it would be advantageous to combine these two control strategies. The result would still be practical and effective, yet would now address a range of system phenomenon beyond that which is capable by either of the individual control techniques. However, there is a definite gap in the state-of-the-art technology for combining these techniques. For example, little research has addressed the intelligent combination of traditional, outside-the-loop input shaping and PID feedback control. In addition, only a few researchers have attempted to place input shaping filters within feedback loops. This research studies the intelligent combination of input shaping and PID feedback control by developing a concurrent design procedure for outside-the-loop input shaping/PID feedback combinations and by analyzing the effect of placing input shaping filters within feedback loops.

Residual vibrations degrade the performance of many systems. Due to the lightweight and flexible nature of space structures, controlling residual vibrations is especially difficult. Also, systems such as the Space Shuttle remote Manipulator System have frequencies that vary significantly based upon configuration and loading. Recently, a technique of minimizing vibrations in flexible structures by command input shaping was developed. This document presents research completed in developing a simple, closed- form method of calculating input shaping sequences for two-mode systems and a system to adapt the command input shaping technique to known changes in system frequency about the workspace. The new techniques were tested on a three-link, flexible manipulator.

Crane motion induces payload oscillation that makes accurate positioning of the payload a challenging task. As the payload size increases, it may be necessary to utilize multiple cranes for better control of the payload position and orientation. However, simultaneously maneuvering multiple cranes to transport a single payload increases the complexity and danger of the operation. This thesis investigates the dynamics and control of dual-hoist bridge cranes transporting distributed payloads. Insights from this dynamic analysis were used to design input shapers that reduce payload oscillation originating from various crane motions. Also, studies were conducted to investigate the effect input shaping has on the performance of human operators using a dual-hoist bridge crane to transport distributed payloads through an obstacle course. In each study, input shaping significantly improved the task completion time. Furthermore, input-shaping control greatly decreased operator effort, as measured by the number of interface button pushes needed to complete a task. These results clearly demonstrate the benefit of input-shaping control on dual-hoist bridge cranes. In addition, a new system identification method that utilizes input shaping for determining the modal frequencies and relative amplitude contributions of individual modes was developed to aid in the dynamic analysis of dual-hoist bridge cranes, as well as other multi-mode systems. This method uses a new type of input shaper to suppress all but one mode to a low level. The shaper can also be used to bring a small-amplitude mode to light by modifying one of the vibration constraints.

The utilization of micro-scale technologies is limited by the speed of their manufacture. Micro-milling is one particular technology used to manufacture micro-scale parts which could benefit extensively from an increase in throughput. Micro-milling involves a rotating cutter slightly thicker than a human hair removing material while spinning at speeds often over one hundred thousand revolutions per minute. An obvious solution to the throughput bottleneck is to move current micro-mills faster using existing technology; however, simply increasing the operational speed of existing micro-mills will lead to vibration and trajectory following problems. If a micro-mill cannot be positioned precisely, then part tolerances cannot be maintained. Thus any increase in throughput would be counterproductive in terms of overall performance. This dissertation presents techniques to improve the performance of micro-mills, as well as other flexible machines. Theses improvements are possible through the utilization of the vibration suppression scheme of input shaping. By thoughtfully altering the commands sent to flexible systems, their vibration can be significantly reduced. Input shaping was effectively applied to an existing micro-mill, which improved part tolerances and increased operational speed. However, at extremely high speeds, traditional input shaping is not effective at following complicated trajectories. Therefore, new input shaping techniques were developed specifically for trajectory tracking of extremely fast motions on micro-mills and other flexible systems. Often machines cannot achieve these high speeds while maintaining their accuracy because of the mechanical design of the machines themselves. If the mechanical design of micro-mills and other machines consider flexible and lightweight design alternatives that utilize input shaping for vibration suppression instead of stiff and heavy designs, then faster machine motion will be possible. By considering input shaped flexible systems as part of traditional mechanical design processes, these flexible solutions allow vast performance improvement. Specifically, embodiment design can be improved through consideration of input shaping performance requirements. Through these advancements, this dissertation improves the design, control, and performance of micro-mills and other flexible machines.

Command Generation has been shown to be a practical and effective control scheme for eliminating payload swing on industrial cranes. However, this technology has not been used to its full potential. One reason is that nonlinear crane dynamics degrade the performance of current command generators, making them challenging to use. A second reason is that few crane operators are aware of this technology. Therefore, this thesis strives to alleviate these problems through the completion of three major tasks. First, new command generation algorithms are developed that compensate for nonlinear crane dynamics. Two major sources of non-linear dynamics are targeted: nonlinear drive dynamics, and non-linear physical dynamics of tower cranes. Second, command generation are examined from an educational perspective; both in the classroom and in the working field. Third, three experimental crane devices were built to fulfill the two prior tasks.

Zur Produktion von gewirkten Textilien werden mehrere Nadeln auf eine Legebarre gesetzt, die durch Servoantriebe positioniert werden. Aufgrund der erzwungenen Bewegung kann der Antriebsstrang bei hohen Drehzahlen zur Schwingung angeregt werden. Die richtige Wahl der Steuerkurven ist daher eine sehr wichtige und anspruchsvolle Aufgabe, die durch ein Antriebsstrangmodell unterstützt werden soll. Dafür wird am Beispiel eines Teststands ein Modell des Antriebsstranges in MATLAB/Simulink® entwickelt. Für das Antriebsstrangmodell müssen eine geeignete Modellordnung und Modellparameter gewählt werden. Die unbekannten Modellparameter werden durch eine Parameteridentifikation ermittelt. Mit einer Validierung wird ein geeignetes Anregungsspektrum für die Bestimmung der Modellordnung und die Parameteridentifikation ermittelt.

Machine vibration leads to lower precision, efficiency, and safety. As a result, large sums of money and innumerable man-hours are spent in efforts to reduce vibration in machinery. A subclass of machinery that is widely used in industry is two-mode flexible systems. Cranes with double-pendulum dynamics and two-link flexible robotic arms are representative examples of two-mode flexible systems. In order to thoroughly understand these types of systems, a detailed study of double-pendulum cranes is preformed. The crane payload is considered to be a distributed mass. The parameters of the payload and the crane has important effects on the dynamic response. the effects are studied as a function of the parameters so that effective control methods can be developed. This thesis develops a technique for improving the control of two-mode flexible systems called input shaping. Input shaping is a control strategy that uses a series of impulses to modify the reference command to suppress unwanted vibration in a system. This thesis reviews several types of input shapers and presents a method for optimizing a robust input shaper called Specified Insensitivity input shapers using knowledge of amplitude contributions of each mode to the overall response. Simulations and experiments are presented to verify the new algorithm. Two human operator studies are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of input shaping when used in conjunction with distributed crane payloads, such as cargo containers. One study investigates the improvement in efficiency when using input shaping and the differences in efficiency between input shapers. The other study investigates operator learning when moving a payload with unshaped and shaped commands.

abstract: Human operators have difficulty driving cranes quickly, accurately, and safely because of the slow response of heavy crane structures, non-intuitive control interfaces, and payload oscillations. Recently, a novel hand-motion crane control system has been proposed to improve performance by coupling an intuitive control interface with an element that reduces the complex oscillatory behavior of the payload. Hand-motion control allows operators to drive a crane by simply moving a hand-held radio-frequency tag through the desired path. Real-time location sensors are used to track the movements of the tag and the tag position is used in a feedback control loop to drive the crane. An input shaper is added to eliminate dangerous payload oscillations. However, tag position measurements are corrupted by noise. It is important to understand the noise properties so that appropriate filters can be designed to mitigate the effects of noise and improve tracking accuracy. This work discusses implementing filtering techniques to address the issue of noise in the operating environment. Five different filters are used on experimentally-acquired tag trajectories to reduce noise. The filtered trajectories are then used to drive crane simulations. Filter performance is evaluated with respect to the energy usage of the crane trolley, the settling time of the crane payload oscillations, and the safety corridor of the crane trajectory. The effects of filter window lengths on these parameters are also investigated. An adaptive filtering technique, namely the Kalman filter, adapts to the noise characteristics of the workspace to minimize the tag tracking error and performs better than the other filtering techniques examined. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.S. Bioengineering 2012

We investigate the implementation of nontraditional open-loop and closed-loop control techniques to systems at the micro and macro scales. At the macro level, we consider a quay-side container crane. It is known that the United States relies on ocean transportation for 95% of cargo tonnage that moves in and out of the country. Each year over six million loaded marine containers enter U.S. ports. Current growth predictions indicate that container cargo will quadruple in the next twenty years. To cope with this rapid growth, we develop a novel open-loop input-shaping control technique to mitigate payload oscillations on quay-side container cranes. The proposed approach is suitable for automated crane operations, does not require any alterations to the existing crane structure, uses the maximum crane capabilities, and is based on an accurate two-dimensional four-bar-mechanism model of a container crane. The shaped commands are based on a nonlinear approximation of the two-dimensional model frequency and, unlike traditional input-shaping techniques, our approach can account for large hoisting operations. For operator-in-the-loop crane operations, we develop a closed-loop nonlinear delayed-position feedback controller. Key features of this controller are that it: does not require major modifications to the existing crane structure, accounts for motion inversion delays, rejects external disturbances, and is superimposed on the crane operator commands. To validate the controllers, we construct a 1:10 scale model of a 65-ton quay-side container crane. The facility consists of a 7-meter track, 3.5-meter hoisting cables, a trolley, a traverse motor, two hoisting motors, and a 50-pound payload. Using this setup, we demonstrated the effectiveness of the controllers in mitigating payload oscillations in both of the open-loop and closed-loop modes of operation. At the micro level, we consider a micro optical device known as the torsional micromirror. This device has a tremendous number of industrial and consumer market applications including optical switching, light scanning, digital displays, etc. To analyze this device, we develop a comprehensive model of an electrically actuated torsional mirror. Using a Galerkin expansion, we develop a reduced-order model of the mirror and verify it against experimental data. We investigate the accuracy of representing the mirror using a two-degrees-of-freedom lumped-mass model. We conclude that, under normal operating conditions, the statics and dynamics of the mirror can be accurately represented by the simplified lumped-mass system. We utilize the lumped-mass model to study and analyze the nonlinear dynamics of torsional micromirrors subjected to combined DC and resonant AC excitations. The analysis is aimed at enhancing the performance of micromirrors used for scanning applications by providing better insight into the effects of system parameters on the microscanner's optimal design and performance. Examining the characteristics of the mirror response, we found that, for a certain DC voltage range, a two-to-one internal resonance might be activated between the first two modes. Due to this internal resonance, the mirror exhibits complex dynamic behavior. This behavior results in undesirable vibrations that can be detrimental to the scanner performance. Torsional micromirrors are currently being implemented to provide all-optical switching in fiber optic networks. Traditional switching techniques are based on converting the optical signal into electrical signal and back into optical signal before it can be switched into another fiber. This reduces the rate of data transfer substantially. To realize fast all-optical switching, we enhance the transient dynamic characteristics and performance of torsional micromirrors by developing a novel technique for preshaping the voltage commands applied to activate the mirror. This new approach is the first to effectively account for inherent nonlinearities, damping effects, and the energy of the significant higher modes. Using this technique, we are able to realize very fast switching operations with minimal settling time and almost zero overshoot. / Ph. D.