Automatic P/PI speed control mode switching for industry servo applications

Conventional P/PI (proportional/ proportional-integral) speed controller of industry servo drives should be manually tuned the controller switching set-point by trial-and-errors, which may translate the drive system down-time and loss of productivity. The adjustable drive performance is heavily dependent on the quality of the expert knowledge and becomes inadequate in applications where the operating conditions change in a wide range, i.e., tracking command, acceleration/deceleration time, and load disturbances. In this paper, the demands on simple controls/setup, which are necessary to take advantage of the motor dynamic characteristics, are discussed. Analyzing the frequency content of motor torque command, P/PI control mode switching is automatically performed with some prior knowledge of the mechanical dynamics. The dynamic performance of the proposed scheme assures a desired tracking response curve with minimal oscillation and settling time over the whole operating conditions. For comprehensive comparison of traditional P/PI control scheme, extensive test is carried out on actual servo system.