FIU UPC Cooperation Agreement

Projects developed by UPC students

Course: Automation and Control

Level: Eighth semester



Project title:
Design of automatic control system for balancing a counterweight bascule.

Objectives:
Motivate students to apply the techniques of control theory to design a feedback control
system. The project includes:
Modeling,
Matlab/Simulink simulation
Definition of performance indexes
Use of Matlab rltool
Design of feedback control system using roots locus method.
Closed- loop simulation
Conclusions

Teamwork: 1 student

Project development and analysis:
The structure of the counterweight bascule is shown in Fig. 1. It is composed of a rotating
beam, a viscous damper, a DC motor and sensors to measure angular position.
The objective is to determine a feedback control law to compute the motor voltage to stabilize
the bascule beam after a load of weight W is applied on the beam. To achieve that, the motor
should automatically move a counterweight Wc along a lead screw as it is shown in Fig. 1.















W: Weight
Wc : Counterweight
Figure 1. Structure of bascule with balancing counterweight.


Sensors
Two potentiometers are available. One sensor is for measuring the inclination angle of the
bascule beam, and the another sensor is for measuring the angle of rotation of the DC motor
shaft which is directly related to the displacement of counterweight Wc.

Feedback:
The feedback law will be proportional-type. The signals of the potentiometers will be directly
used to determine the voltage to be applied to the motor.

Modeling
To model the bascule it is required to define a fixed reference frame to formulate the
mechanical and electrical equations governing the system, as it is shown in Fig. 2.
























For small values of ?, it can be approximated by the following equation:
i i
l
y
l
y

=
1
tan

Rotational motion equations:

Damper ght Counterwei Load Torques
dt
d
I = =

2
2

dt
d
f l xW W l
dt
d
I
i c w

2
2
2
=


Figure 2. System free-body diagram.



The voltage of the DC motor is calculated using a proportional feedback control law using the
signals from the two potentiometers.

) ( ) ( x K y K K t V
f i m m
=

K
i
and K
f
are the known constant gains of the potentiometers and are expressed in volt/m.
K
m
is the unknown gain to be determined so that the DC motor automatically stabilize
(balance) the bascule.

The DC motor transfer function is:

) 1 (
1
) (
) (
+
=
s s s V
s
m
m

The motor angle and the displacement of Wc along X-axis are related by the following
equation:

x x
m
cm
cm
rad
m m
= =

4000 100 20
2

4000
1
1
= K


Simplifying equations and applying Laplace transform:

i
L
i
l
s y
s
l
y ) (
) ( = = ................................................................................... (1)
) ( ) ( ) ( ) (
2 2 2
2
2
s fs l W s X s W l s Is
dt
d
f l xW W l
dt
d
I
i c w
L
i c w


= = ....... (2)

) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( s x K s y K s V x K y K t V
f i m
L
f i m
= = ........................................... (3)

) ( ) (
) 1 ( ) (
) (
s
K
s
s V
s
K
s s
K
s V
s
m
m
m
L m m
m
m

= =
+
= .............................................. (4)

) ( ) (
1 1
s x K s x K
m
L
m
= = ........................................................................ (5)


The transfer function of the system is given by:

m i i c m i f i m f
m i i w
K K K l W s K K l fK s fl K K IK Is
K K K l l
s W
s x
1 1
2
2
2
1
3
1
) ( ) ( ) (
) (
+ + + +
=

where x is the bascule displacement and W is the counterweight.

Controller Design Specifications :
The controller should be designed to achieve the following performance specifications:

Steady state error: 0
Camping factor: ? = 0.5
Settling time: < 2 seconds

To design the controller, firstly the characteristic equation should be solved:

1+KP(s) = 0.

By algebraic manipulation of the transfer function:

[ ]
0
) 3 8 (
96 ) 3 8 (
10
1
) 3 8 ( .. ...
0
10
96
10
) 3 8 ( ) 3 8 (
0
10
96
10
) 3 8 (
2
2
2
=
+
+ +
+
+
= + + + +
= +

+ +
s s
s s
K
s s by dividing
K K
s s s s
K K
s s s
m
m m
m m

K =
10
m
K
and P(s)=
[ ]
) 3 8 (
96 ) 3 8 (
2
+
+ +
s s
s s


Using the Matalab rltool with the given specifications, the obtained root locus and step
response are shown in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4, respectively.



Figure 4. Root locus.

















Figure 3. Root locus.























As it can be noted in Fig. 3, the desired specifications can be achieved for a value of K = 25.3
and the corresponding K
m
= 7600 rpm/volt.
In Fig.4, it is noted that the settling time is 0.723 seconds, the overshoot is 17% for a damping
factor ? = 0.5.


Simulation of Closed Loop System
Given the transfer function of the closed- loop system, its response was simulated using
Simulink. The block diagram is shown in Fig. 5.


Figure 5. Simulink diagram of closed- loop system.




Figure 4. Unitary step response.




The response of the closed- loop system was simulated for several working conditions varying
the damping coefficient and changing the position of the load W. The step response for load
W = 1 Kg is shown in Fig. 6. The gain in steady-state is 2.5 cm/Kg.


























Conclusions

- The fact that for small vales, angle ? can be approximated by tan(?), linearize the
model and simplify the analysis.

- To develop a complete model, it was considered the motor transfer function, the
voltage relation, and the relation between the motor angle and the longitudinal
displacement of the counterweight.

- It was verified that for a Type-1 system, the steady-state error for a step input is 0.

- It was verified the usefulness of Matlab-rltool for designing controllers achieving the
design specifications.

- The resulting controller is proportional-type. The overshoot is acceptable and the
settling time is short enough to allow an easy manipulation of the bascule.


Fig. 6. Step response for a load of 1 Kg.
- The dynamical response of the closed- loop system was simulated using Simulink. It
was found that for every additional kilogram, the counterweight will have a
displacement of 2.5cm

- The convergence value of the step response was verified using the Final Value
Theorem.

- The controller was correctly designed to satisfy given design specifications and
requirements.