The application of minimal control synthesis to web tension and transport control

The minimal control synthesis (MCS) algorithm is an adaptive control strategy that requires no prior knowledge of plant dynamic parameters, and yet is guaranteed to provide global asymptotic stability of the closed-loop system. The purpose of this paper is to present MCS as applied to web tension and transport control, a class of plant that has highly nonlinear dynamics and time varying parameters. The plant is difficult to control by conventional methods over its full operating range. A typical example of such a plant is presented along with the implementation of MCS. Experimental comparisons of MCS with conventional control benchmarks are provided. It is shown that MCS significantly outperforms the conventional controller