An Active Disturbance Rejection Approach to Tension and Velocity Regulations in Web Processing Lines

In this paper, a unique disturbance rejection control strategy is proposed for a class of tension and velocity regulation problems found in web process lines. The proposed control system actively estimates and rejects the effects of both dynamic changes in the system and external disturbances. Both open-loop and closed-loop tension regulation schemes are investigated. A tension observer is designed in order to facilitate closed loop tension control in the absence of a tension transducer. The performance of existing schemes and the proposed ones are compared and the results show marked improvements in tracking and disturbance rejection by the proposed solutions.