Modeling and control system design for tape drive loader mechanism

In this paper, the modeling and control system design for the loader mechanism in a tape drive/video cassette system is presented. The system is driven by a voltage controlled pulse-width-modulated (PWM) servo controller. During the entire range of the loader operation, the system inertia, damping, and the flexibility of the coupling between the drive and the load vary considerably. A proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller is designed around a nominal operating point using pole-placement technique. This allows the controller gains to be set directly based on the desired integrator action and bandwidth requirements. The performance of the sensor based motion control of the loader mechanism is then presented.