Patent ID: 6853158
Filing Date: 2005-02-08
Classification: H02P

Abstract:
1. A control system for controlling a plant having an operating characteristic which describes the translation of a plant input to a plant output, wherein the plant operating characteristic has a linear component and a non-linear component, the control system comprising: a feedback control function; and a feed-forward control function, wherein a demand signal is simultaneously applied to respective inputs of the feedback and feed-forward control functions, and respective outputs of the feedback and feed-forward control functions are summed together to generate the plant input, the feed-forward control function having a first component which is a function of a model of the linear component of the plant characteristic, and a second component which is an adaptive function to compensate for the non-linear component of the plant characteristic, the adaptive function being substantially modeled on the non-linear component of the plant characteristic and having adaptive laws which vary parameters of the adaptive function with time such that the adaptive function approaches the non-linear component of the plant characteristic, and wherein the plant is a permanent magnet linear motor (PMLM) wherein the feedback control function is a Proportional/Integral/Derivative (PID) controller.