Stabilization of the Oscillating Eccentric Rotor via Multiple Sliding Surfaces

A new solution for the stabilization and disturbance attenuation problems of the oscillating eccentric rotor (OER), a widely studied nonlinear mechanical system, is presented in this paper. The under actuation property, posing problems in exact feedback linearization, makes design of the control law for OER a challenging task. A novel nonlinear controller design exploiting the recently introduced Multiple Sliding Surface Control technique is presented for the OER. The task of the nonlinear controller is not only to de-spin the rotor but also to stop the translational oscillations. The design procedure is simpler and more intuitive than currently available integrator backstepping or energy shaping based designs. Stability is analyzed by decomposing the system into a cascade of several sub-systems. Advantages over existing controller designs are analyzed theoretically and verified using numerical simulations..