Neuro sliding mode control of timing belt servo-system

In this paper, the employment of neural networks with sliding mode control in the control of a linear drive with flexible transmission element is described. Linear drives with flexible transmission elements are cheaper and also more efficient than the ones with rigid transmissions like power screw systems. Hence, these devices play an important role in the industry. A neuro-sliding mode controller cascaded with a discrete sliding mode controller is used to control the system. Neuro-sliding mode controller is used in the outer loop and produces reference for the discrete sliding mode controller which serves as a force controller, in the inner loop. The control signal of the neuro-controller is obtained by minimizing an error function which is derived from Lyapunov stability analysis. The controller performance is tested with different loading conditions and different friction torques and the results are presented.