Piecewise linear sheet control in an H∞ framework

This paper presents a control design approach for sheet control in a printer paper path. By splitting up the control problem in two levels, i.e. low level motor control loops and a high level sheet control loop, a hierarchical control structure is obtained. The high level sheet dynamics are formulated in the piecewise linear modeling formalism. Given this model, together with models of the controlled low level motor dynamics, a high level feedback controller is designed with guaranteed H_∞ performance. The designed controller is implemented on a experimental paper path setup to show the effectiveness of the control design in practice.