Study on experimental plant of positioning control solutions for processes with variable moment of inertia

The paper presents a study on the behavior of some positioning control solutions for an electric drive system evolving in conditions of reference and parameter variability. The main variable parameter of the process is the moment of inertia in the context of a system that corresponds to laboratory equipment. The main advantages of the laboratory equipment are the possibility of adjusting the dynamic parameters and the ability to insert and remove the non-ideal properties in a controlled manner. Using a detailed mathematical model of the process and the particular features of the drive system, the paper proposes three control solutions. The developed position controllers are: (1) a classical PID controller, (2) a two-degree-of-freedom controller (2DOF) and (3) a Takagi-Sugeno PD+I fuzzy controller (TS-PD+I-FC). The proposed control solutions are validated by means of experiments on laboratory equipment and have a large applicability in the field of mechatronic systems, where such applications with variable inertia and control system inputs are always present.