EAPSI: Developing a Controls Engineering Education Program for Input Shaping

Newman Daniel, Lafayette LA

Investigators

Abstract

In the field of controls engineering, command shaping techniques can be useful in a wide range of applications such as cranes, spacecraft, hard disk drives, and robotic arms. In particular, input shaping, which is a specific approach in command shaping, can be used to reduce vibration in flexible systems simply by altering the input command. Although input shaping has become increasingly prominent, quality educational programs for this control method are not readily available. This project will allow collaboration between Dr. Seong-Wook Hong, a recognized expert on input shaping, and the PI in the creation of new educational materials to expand the knowledge on this topic. Furthermore, the PI will leverage Dr. Hong's experimental equipment at the Kumoh National Institute of Technology in Korea to verify an input shaping method that will improve the controllability of ship-mounted boom cranes. This project will expand the knowledgebase of input shaping in complex dynamic systems while facilitating the education of future engineers on this topic. Input shaping is a command shaping method by which a desired input command is convolved with a series of impulses to produce a shaped command that imparts little to no residual vibration. It is particularly useful in the control of cranes, which can exhibit multiple degrees of freedom. Because these systems tend to have an operator-in-the-loop, input shaping can offer better performance than a closed-loop feedback methods; its intuitive nature is more compatible with a human operator. The main drawback of this open-loop method is its inability to compensate for nonzero initial conditions. As part of this project, a new input shaping technique that eliminates such initial conditions will be experimentally tested. This research will facilitate the control of ship-mounted boom cranes, which are frequently used for such tasks as ASV retrieval and cargo transfer. This award, under the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes program, supports summer research by a U.S. graduate student and is jointly funded by NSF and the National Research Foundation of Korea.