A mechatronic approach for ball screw drive system: modeling, control, and validation on an FPGA-based architecture

This paper presents a novel mechatronic approach to modeling, control design, and experimental validation of a two-axis high-accuracy ball screw drive system. At first, a general mathematical model is developed by the Lagrange’s equation of Motion to characterize the dynamic behaviors of all the variables for an N-degrees of freedom system that includes electric behavior of the DC motors. Thus, the model provides a general framework for the control algorithm design. A robust PD-hyperbolic–type control strategy is proposed based on the representation of a nonlinear dynamic model for the trajectory tracking that solves the problem of regulation and position control. The stability method of Lyapunov is applied; in addition, the asymptotic stability of an equilibrium point is analyzed for the closed-loop dynamic model. The proposed control law ensures the dynamic performance of the closed-loop signals and desired tracking precision. On the other hand, the description of a new and original FPGA-based programmable microprocessor design is introduced which consists of its own design approaches of a hardware/software architecture. Finally, based on a built prototype of a ball screw drive system, experimental tests and simulations with motion trajectory tracking are conducted to verify the proposed general mathematical model and the control law. Experimental results demonstrate an excellent tracking trajectory and desired precision performance, which validates the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposal.