A mechatronic positioning system actuated using a micro DC-motor-driven propeller-thruster
One of the greatest challenges facing designers in the mechatronics field is the development of autonomous systems capable of guiding an airborne object along a given trajectory or maintaining its position in a specified location. Nonetheless, developing such ability is essential to support emerging UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) requirements in the civil and military domains. Accordingly, this study commences by constructing a mechatronic system featuring a manipulator arm actuated by a DC-motor-driven constant-pitch propeller and then develops suitable control schemes to regulate the power supplied to the DC motor such that the manipulator arm is driven through a specified rotational displacement. Three different control schemes are implemented to regulate the displacement of the manipulator arm, namely a fixed gain PID controller, a function-based variable gain PID controller and a fuzzy gain-mixing PID controller. The feasibility of the three control systems is evaluated both numerically and experimentally. It is shown that the fixed gain PID controller results in a significant overshoot of the manipulator arm and leads to a loss of control. However, the function-based variable gain PID controller and the fuzzy gain-mixing PID controller both ensure an accurate tracking performance, even when the manipulator arm is manually perturbed during rotation. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
positioning propeller manipulator dc motor