A piecewise linear approach towards sheet control in a printer paper path

In this paper an approach towards sheet control in a printer paper path is presented. To make the control problem feasible, the complex overall control question is formulated in a hierarchical control set-up with a low level motor control part and a high level sheet control part. To understand the essence of the sheet control problem we consider a basic paper path in which industrial constraints and requirements are relaxed. Furthermore, the motor control part is assumed to be ideal and the sheet dynamics are captured in the piecewise linear modeling formalism. Based on the model of the sheet dynamics, the controller synthesis is carried out. Both state and output feedback control designs are presented and stability and tracking performance are analyzed. The effectiveness of the control design approaches is demonstrated via simulations