Optimization of controller gains for FPGA-based multivariable motion controller using response surface methodology

Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) have become increasingly popular in recent years for control applications. Using contemporary FPGA technology, a powerful virtual processor can be synthesized and integrated with custom hardware to create a dedicated controller that outperforms conventional microcontroller and microprocessor based designs. The FPGA based controller takes advantage of both hardware features and virtual processor technology. This study details the development of a cascaded type PD controller for an inverted pendulum system implemented on a single FPGA device. The controller includes a hardware based implementation of the IO modules including quadrature decoders/counters and a Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) controller for the motor driver. The NIOS II processor was synthesized to implement the cascaded PID controller algorithm. This study also proposes a novel method for obtaining the optimal controller gains for the system. It uses the Central Composite Design (CCD) in Response Surface Methodology (RSM) for obtaining these gains. A classic inverted pendulum system was selected to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed approach. The gains provided by the RSM were verified experimentally to validate the proposed controller tuning method.