More Like this

1. Optimal fractional-order proportional–integral–derivative control enabling full actuation of decomposed rotary inverted pendulum system

   https://doi.org/10.1177/01423312221146606  

   Yang, Yi ; Zhang, Haiyan H. ; Voyles, Richard M. ( January 2023 , Transactions of the Institute of Measurement and Control)

   Allowing for a “virtual” full actuation of a rotary inverted pendulum (RIP) system with only a single physical actuator has been a challenging problem. In this paper, a hybrid control scheme that involves a pole-placement feedback controller and an optimal proportional–integral–derivative (PID) or fractional-order PID (FOPID) controller is proposed to simultaneously enable the tracking control of the rotary arm and the stabilization of the pendulum arm in an input–output feedback linearized RIP system. The PID controller is optimized first with the particle swarm optimization (PSO) to obtain three optimal gains, and then the other two parameters of the FOPID controller are optimized with the PSO. Compared to the optimized PID controller, the optimized FOPID controller improves the tracking and stabilizing accuracy by 53% and 29%, respectively, and demonstrates better adaptability for tracking different reference signals. Moreover, the hybrid FOPID controller exhibits 74.8% and 53% higher tracking accuracy than previous optimized model reference adaptive control PID (MRAC-PID) and linear–quadratic regulator (LQR) controllers, respectively. The proposed hybrid controllers are also digitized with different rules and sampling times, showing a closer performance between the discrete-time and continuous-time hybrid controllers under smaller sampling times.
2. Design and Assessment of Innovative Dual-Mode Rolling Isolation Systems

   https://doi.org/11244/321054  

   Hadikhan Tehrani, Mohammad ( August 2019 , The University of Oklahoma Libraries)

   Loss of operation or devastating damage to buildings and industrial structures, as well as equipment housed in them, has been observed due to earthquake-induced vibrations. A common source of operational downtime is due to the performance reduction of vital equipment, which are sensitive to the total transmitted acceleration. A well-known method of protecting such equipment is seismic isolation of the equipment itself (or a group of equipment), as opposed to the entire structure due to the lower cost of implementation. The first objective of this dissertation is assessing a rolling isolation system (RIS) based on existing design guidelines for telecommunications equipment. A discrepancy is observed between the required response spectrum (RRS) and the one and only accelerogram recommended in the guideline. Several filters are developed to generate synthetic accelerograms that are compatible with the RRS. The generated accelerograms are used for probabilistic assessment of a RIS that is acceptable per the guideline. This assessment reveals large failure probability due to displacement demands in excess of the displacement capacity of the RIS. When the displacement demands on an isolation system are in excess of its capacity, impacts result in spikes in transmitted acceleration. Therefore, the second objective of this dissertation ismore »to design impact prevention/mitigation mechanisms. A dual-mode system is proposed where the behavior changes when the displacement exceeds a predefined threshold. A new piecewise optimal control approach is developed and applied to find the best possible mechanism for the region beyond the threshold. By utilizing the designed curves obtained from the proposed optimal control procedure, a Kelvin-Voigt device is tuned for illustrative purposes. On the other hand, the preference for protecting equipment decreases as the earthquake intensity increases. In extreme seismic loading, the response mitigation of the primary structure (i.e., life safety and collapse prevention) is of greater concern than protecting isolated equipment. Therefore, the third objective of this dissertation is to develop an innovative dual-mode system that can behave as equipment isolation under low to moderate seismic loading and passively transition to behave as a vibration absorber for the primary structure under extreme seismic loading. To reduce the computational cost of simulating a large linear elastic structure with nonlinear attachments (i.e., equipment isolation with cubic hardening nonlinearity), a reduced order modeling method is introduced that can capture the behavior of such nonlinear coupled systems. The method is applied to study the feasibility of dual-mode vibration isolation/absorber. To this end, nonlinear transmissibility curves for the roof displacement and isolated mass total acceleration are developed from the steady-state responses of dual-mode systems using the harmonic balanced method. The final objective of this dissertation is to extend the reduced order modeling method developed for linear elastic structure with nonlinear attachment to inelastic structures (without attachments). The new inelastic model condensation (IMC) method uses the modal properties of the full structural model (in the elastic range) to construct a linear reduced order model in conjunction with a hysteresis model to capture the hysteretic inter-story restoring forces. The parameters of these hysteretic forces are easily tuned, in order to fit the inelastic behavior of the condensed structure to that of the full model under a variety of simple loading scenarios. The fidelity of structural models condensed in this way is demonstrated via simulation for different ground motion intensities on three different building structures with various heights. The simplicity, accuracy, and efficiency of this approach could significantly alleviate the computational burden of performance-based earthquake engineering.« less
3. Utilizing the Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm for Determining Control Parameters for Civil Structures Subject to Seismic Excitation

   https://doi.org/10.3390/a14100292  

   Peckens, Courtney A. ; Alsgaard, Andrea ; Fogg, Camille ; Ngoma, Mary C. ; Voskuil, Clara ( October 2021 , Algorithms)

   Structural control of civil infrastructure in response to large external loads, such as earthquakes or wind, is not widely employed due to challenges regarding information exchange and the inherent latencies in the system due to complex computations related to the control algorithm. This study employs front-end signal processing at the sensing node to alleviate computations at the control node and results in a simplistic sum of weighted inputs to determine a control force. The control law simplifies to U = WP, where U is the control force, W is a pre-determined weight matrix, and P is a deconstructed representation of the response of the structure to the applied excitation. Determining the optimal weight matrix for this calculation is non-trivial and this study uses the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm with a modified homing feature to converge on a possible solution. To further streamline the control algorithm, various pruning techniques are combined with the PSO algorithm in order to optimize the number of entries in the weight matrix. These optimization techniques are applied in simulation to a five-story structure and the success of the resulting control parameters are quantified based on their ability to minimize the information exchange while maintaining controlmore »effectiveness. It is found that a magnitude-based pruning method, when paired with the PSO algorithm, is able to offer the most effective control for a structure subject to seismic base excitation.« less
4. High-speed data acquisition and computing for real-time active control of civil structures subject to seismic base excitation

   https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2612570  

   Peckens, Courtney A. ( April 2022 , SPIE Smart Structures + Nondestructive Evaluation)

   Zonta, Daniele ; Su, Zhongqing ; Glisic, Branko (Ed.)

   Active structural control of civil infrastructure in response to large external loads, such as earthquake or wind, requires the rapid integration of information between sensing nodes, computational nodes, and actuating nodes. Because of this, it is still not widely employed due to several key issues, such as latency in the system and challenges with information exchange. In this study, the Martlet, a high-speed data acquisition and computing node that was designed based on a Texas Instruments Piccolo microcontroller and capable of peer-to-peer wireless communication, is used for all three steps in the active control process. For rapid sensing, the Martlet is equipped with an interface board that interfaces with a displacement transducer and has an on-board differentiating circuit to derive velocity. The sensing Martlet transmits its data (i.e., displacement and velocity) to the actuating Martlet. The actuating Martlet calculates the necessary control force using an optimal control law, the full-state linear quadratic regulator. The resulting control force is then conveyed to the actuator via a controller interface board. This complete process is experimentally validated on a partial-scale, four-story shear structure and it is demonstrated that due to the fast processing speeds of the Martlet, real-time control of the structure canmore »be achieved.« less
5. Self-sensing of Dielectric Tubular Actuator and Its Validation in Feedback Control

   https://doi.org/10.1109/AIM43001.2020.9158899  

   Wang, Shengbin ; Kaaya, Theophilus ; Chen, Zheng ( July 2020 , 2020 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics (AIM))

   Dielectric elastomer (DE) materials, a category of electroactive polymers, can be used to design actuators that are flexible, resilient, lightweight, and durable. However, due to the uncertainties in its actuation dynamics, DE actuators always rely on feedback control to perform accurate and safe operations. In this paper, a tubular dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA) with self-sensing capability is developed. It does not require external devices to measure displacement for feedback control. The displacement of the actuator is controlled using a proportional-integral controller with the capacitance measured at high probing frequency as the self-sensing mechanism component of the actuator. By superimposing actuation and probing voltage and applying them to the DE tube, the actuation voltage activates the movement of the DE tube and the probing voltage is used for self-sensing. Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is then used to filter a given frequency of the probing current and voltage and then calculate the capacitance from the probing current and voltage during each time window. With the relationship between capacitance and displacement of the DE tube, the displacement output is estimated online and self-sensing without an external sensor is achieved. The self-sensing signal is then used as a feedback signal in a closed-loop designmore »to follow a reference signal for tracking. The experimental results validate the self-sensing of the DE actuator in feedback control.« less