Eciency of a PLC-based PI controller in stabilization of

a rotational motion aected by the chaotic disturbances

Wojciech Kunikowski, Jan Awrejcewicz, Pawel Olejnik

Abstract: The popularity of programmable logic controllers (PLC), a large va-

riety of standardized models and its programming methods are associated with
the continuously growing experimental and industrial demands. These CPU-
based units for logical operations can be successfully used to implement many
algorithms that control linear and nonlinear dynamical states of real objects
or physical phenomena. Control of rotational or linear periodic displacements
generated by DC motors plays an important role in this eld. In the analyzed
self-excited dynamical system with two degrees-of-freedom and dry friction,
one of the state variables becomes chaotic. This causes an irregular forcing of
a frictional contact leading to destabilization of the discontinuous eect of a
periodic stick-slip vibrations. In addition, as a result of existence of the irregu-
larities, the precision of a dry friction model becomes uncertain. Stabilization
of the motor speed requires to use a controller that would guarantee robust-
ness of the control system maintaining the desired speed at a constant value. A
method of programming of the selected FATEK PLC FBs-MC24T have been
described, as well as basic PI algorithm of control applied.

1. Introduction
Programmable logic controllers carry out many instructions related to the users program to
be solved, hundreds points of I/O status to be updated, a few communication ports needed
to be serviced, and other. In comparison with human responses, PLCs almost complete all
instructions at the same time. Hence, they can meet the enumerated requirements of the
most practical control tasks. This advantage has been extensively utilized in many elds
of science. Some applications connected with experimental investigations performed in this
work are described below.
Speed control of a separately excited DC motor using a PLC was taken into consideration
in [4]. A variable DC voltage is provided to the armature circuit of the motor from a xed
DC voltage supply via the PLC, which acts as a DC-DC chopper. Pang-Pang control has
been applied for on/o power switching to the DC motor depending on the reference speed.

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dc-voltage supply via the PLC, which acts as a dc-dc chopper. Pang-Pang control has been
applied for on or o power switching to the dc-motor depending on the reference speed.
The approach is easy in application, fast and eective to control the speed from 0 to 100%
of the the range. The proposed system is suitable for dierent industrial applications such
as subway cars, trolley buses, or battery-operated vehicles.
The purpose of the study [14] was to analyze and implement PI control for the permanent
magnet dc-motor. The control algorithm is realized using Siemens S7-200 PLC supplemented
by EM235 analog input/output module. The complex motor system is composed of a dc-
motor, driver and tachogenerator. The main objective was to achieve a satisfactory time
response of the system output under disturbances like death zone, nonlinearity, measurement
noise and external load acting. The PI controller is designed in the programming environment
on a previously identied nonlinear motor system. Then the PI controller was embedded into
the PLC taken into the control. The eectiveness of the control is tested in both numerical
simulation and experiments.
Monitoring and control system for the induction motor based on a PLC technology was
implemented in [6]. In the presented strategy the PLC correlates the operational parameters
to the speed requested by the user and monitors the system during normal operation and un-
der trip conditions. Tests of the induction motor system driven by an inverter and controlled
by PLC proved a higher accuracy in speed regulation in comparison to the conventional V/f
(voltage over frequency ratio) control system. The eciency of PLC control increased at
high speeds up to 95% of the synchronous speed. Thus, PLC proved themselves as a very
versatile and eective tool in industrial control of electric drives.
In this reference [11], a method to develop and design a fuzzy-hybrid control on an
industrial controller to control speed of an induction motor and implementing a constant
V/f ratio control was developed. Detailed discussions on the controller for a PWM-driven
induction motor drive system, the system identication for the model transfer function,
and the analysis on output responses and the associated manipulated variables have been
presented. The control objective was to provide an eective control action to sudden changes
in reference speed and/or load torque. A switching type controller consisting of two control
modes was devised: a PID-type fuzzy controller consisting of a PI-type and a PD-type fuzzy
controller, and a conventional PID. At the early phase of the control action, the control task
is handled by the PID-type fuzzy controller. At a later phase when the absolute of error
is less than a threshold value, the input of integrator at the output side is no longer given
by fuzzy action but fed by the incremental PID action. In term of control action, this is an
enhanced proportional and derivative action when the actual value is closed to the reference
value. Detailed evaluations of the controllers performance based on preliminary dened

174
performance indices under several conditions were presented. The ndings demonstrated
the ability of the approach to provide a viable control solution in response to the dierent
operating conditions and requirements.
In [10] modeling, simulation and PWM control of an electromechanical actuator (EMA)
system for aeron control (AFC) with permanent magnet (PM) brush dc-motor driven by a
constant current driver are investigated. Nonlinear model of the EMA-AFC system has been
developed and experimentally veried in actuator test bench. Model has been used as the
starting point for PID position controller synthesis. To improve performances of the system,
computational intelligence has been applied. Genetic PID optimization, genetic algorithm
(GA) optimized fuzzy supervisory PID control and nally GA optimized nonlinear PID
algorithm modication were proposed. Improved transient response and system behavior
have also been experimentally validated.
Iterative feedback tuning (IFT) was used in [7] to tune the cascade speed and position
controller of a PM servo drive. Several variants of experimentally obtained criteria for the
test bed were analyzed. The results of the IFT controller, which was easily implemented
on a programmable logic controller (PLC), were compared with the results of three tuning
schemes commonly used in the industry. Experimental tests on the PM dc-motor with
dierent types of load shown that IFT performance in transient conditions is as good as
or better than other methods. The closed-loop transient responses to a step change were
better than those of conventional position and speed controllers. The model-independent
IFT controller tuning strategy can be easily incorporated in existing control loops.
PLC has proven its capability in handling fuzzy algorithms, see for instance [10, 11]. In
the study [1], a fuzzy logic evaluation was simulated using a PLC oriented procedure shown
in [11]. Implementation and analysis of a PLC-based self-tuning PI-fuzzy controller for
linear and non-linear drives control were taken into consideration. The controller consisted
of two fuzzy logic blocks responsible for main and gain tuning, respectively. The main fuzzy
block acts as a speed controller, while the gain tuning block scales the output of main fuzzy.
The output gain tuning has the same inputs as main fuzzy (i.e. speed error and change of
error). By introducing output gain tuning, overshoot and settling time can be restrained.
The objective of the controller was to provide stability, to reduce overshoot in responds to
disturbance and sudden change in reference speed. The performance of this strategy has been
proved. It was compared in a numerical simulation and while carrying out an experiment
with conventional PI-fuzzy controller.
This paper [13] presents the control of induction motor via PROFINET network in-
cluding a remote control using the OLE for Process Control (OPC) standard. This system
was composed of an induction dc-motor, encoder, frequency converter, PLC and two PCs

175
representing the hardware client-server connection. The motor control was PLC-based with
PID controller, while PCs are used as human machine interface devices (HMI) for control-
ling and supervising the plant. PC which was representing the OPC server was connected
with a PLC via Ethernet network, while connection between frequency converter and PLC
was established via PROFIBUS DP protocol. Two PCs are connected using OPC standard,
where physical connection between them is achieved using local area network (LAN). The
obtained experimental results demonstrate a possibility to establish local and remote control
over the analyzed system while ensuring its stability and eciency.
A predictive control (MPC) algorithm with constraint handling capabilities has been
embedded into Allen Bradley PLC (SCL500 processor family) and described in [12]. In order
to achieve it, some parametric approaches to the MPC but diering from more conventional
approaches in that it preliminary denes the complexity of the solution rather than the
allowable suboptimality have been developed. The paper proposed a novel parameterization
of the parametric regions which allows eciency of denition, eective spanning of the
feasible region and also highly ecient search algorithms. Despite the suboptimality, the
algorithm retained guaranteed stability, in the nominal case. A laboratory test was carried
out to demonstrate the code on real hardware and the eectiveness of the solution.
There are many industrial applications of the presented strategies of control based on
the PLCs. Let us only mention about [5, 9].
According to the accurately synchronous technical requirement of ber spinning multi-
motor system, a fuzzy PID control method established on the basis of deviation compen-
sation principle was applied in [5]. In a master-slave control strategy the system involved
programming and debugging by using SIMENS s7-200PLC, as well as designing the deviation
compensation controller in the PLC. PROFIBUS technology was applied to realize commu-
nication in the multi-motor drive system. Experimental results have been obtained while
comparing the fuzzy PID control method and the traditional PID. Excellent performance of
the proposed intelligent PID control have been demonstrated.
Fiber winding tension is an important factor in the molding techniques of composite
materials [9]. The tension inuences the quality of winding product directly, and its control is
a key technique in ber winding techniques. There has been introduced a closed-loop tension
control system with the Panasonic FP-series PLC (denoted as FP0-C10RS, including a 12-bit
FP0-A80 and an FP0-A04V auxiliary conversion module) with function modules as its control
kernel, the alternating current (AC) digital servo driver and servo motor as the executing
element and the radius-following device to accomplish the real-time radius compensation.
The mechanism of the tension control system was analyzed and the numerical model was
set up. Correctness of the compensation technique of the radius of the scroll was proved

176
by experimental results. The system was well qualied with high control precision and high
reaction speed.

2. The analysed dynamical model

The study and prevention of self-excited vibration of systems with friction is very important
in industry and there is a need of friction pair modelling that could correctly describe dynamic
and static friction forces change between two moveable surfaces [2].
The self-excited system presented in Fig. 1 is almost equivalent to a real experimental
rig in which block mass m is moving on the belt in x1 direction, and where the angle body
represented by moment mass of inertia J is rotating around point s with respect to direction
of angle . The analysed system consists of the following parts: two bodies are coupled by
linear springs k2 and k3 ; block on the belt is additionally coupled to xed base using linear
spring k1 ; angle body is excited only by spring forces; there is not extra mechanical actuators;
rotational motion of the angle body is damped using virtual actuators characterizing air
resistance and they are marked by constants c1 and c2 ; damping of the block is neglected;
it is assumed that angle of rotation of the angle body is small and it is within interval
[0.09, 0.09] rad (in this case a rotation is equivalent to linear displacement y of legs a of
the angle body); belt is moving with constant velocity vp and there is not deformation of
the belt in a contact zone.
We consider a discontinuous dynamical system with dry friction shown in Fig. 1. System
of four rst-order ordinary dierential equations takes the form

x1 = x2 ,
x2 = x1 1 (2 (x2 + x4 ) x3 T (v)) ,
(1)
x3 = x4 ,
x4 = 3 (x1 2 x2 4 x3 5 x4 ) .

In Eq. (1) the state vector x = [x1 ,x2 ,x3 ,x4 ] R4 , relative velocity of contacting surfaces
v = x2 vp , and the constant parameters 1 = k2 /( 2 m), 2 = c1 /k2 , 3 = k2 r2 /( 2 J),

4 = (k2 + k3 )/k2 , 5 = (c1 + c2 )/k2 , 6 = 0 k3 /k2 , 7 = c2 0 /k2 , = (k1 + k2 )/m,
J = m(a2 + b2 )/3 are assumed. The term y = 1 6 x3 7 x4 includes also the additional
normal force subject to the mass m from the displacement of the brackets end, and it has
to be regarded to in the friction force model

|T (v)| y0 , for v = 0 ,
(2)
T (v) = sgn (v)yk (v), for v = 0 ,

177
where k is expressed by
0
k (v) = . (3)
1 + |v|

Figure 1. The two degree-of-freedom mechanical system

The self-excited system presented in Fig. 1 is equivalent to a real experimental rig (see
[3]), where block mass m moves on the belt in x1 direction, and the bracket characterized
by moment mass of inertia J rotates about point s with respect to angle . Two bodies
are coupled by linear springs k2 , k3 and dampers c1 , c2 . The block on the moving belt is
additionally attached to a xed wall by means of a linear spring k1 . One assumes that angle
of rotation of the second body (the bracket) is small, therefore sin() y/r is assumed.
It has been shown in [3, 8], that the systems dynamics is irregular. It exhibits periodic,
quasi-periodic and chaotic changes of the normal force acting in the frictional contact between
the belt and the vibrating body. The force depends on the displacement y of the angle bodys
arm (see Fig. 1) and signicantly inuences motion of the moving belt. An estimation of
the kinetic friction force model requires to have the velocity of the moving base as constant
as possible. In addition, as a result of existence of the irregularities, the precision of a
dry friction model becomes uncertain. Stabilization of the motor speed requires to use a
controller that would guarantee robustness of the control system maintaining the desired
speed at a constant value. Therefore, a PLC-based control system described in the next
sections have been developed.

3. The experimental stand

Figure 2 presents the laboratory station on which the experiments have been carried out.
Regulation of the angular velocity of the dc-motor (3) is made by the system of the PLC
(1) and the RN12 driver (2). Characteristic parameters of the PWM wave driver input are

178
as follows: frequency fp = 20 [kHz], amplitude Up = 15 [V]. An auxiliary electronic circuit
(6) shown in Fig. 3 is designed in a way to form the amplitude Up and switching frequency
of the modulated signal taken as input by the motor driver. The circuit consists mainly of
three high density mounting type optocouplers PC817A (typical response time tr = 4 [s] at
VCE = 2 [V]) included in a LTV-847 integrated circuit and resistors reducing current to the
levels required by the integrated circuit and the PLC inputs. Together with the incremental
encoder (4) it closes the control loop of the designed control system. Proportional-Integral
(PI) regulator has been implemented on the PLC (1) by means of the ladder diagram shown
in Fig. 4 controlling the PWM duty cycle.

Figure 2. Picture of the experimental stand: 1 - a PLC by FATEK in the FBs-MC24T

training box, 2 - RN12 dc -motor driver, 3 - the dc -motor PZTK 62-42 J, 4 - IVO GI333
incremental encoder, 5 - MATRIX 60V and 30V regulated power apliers, 6 - an electronic
circuit to form the PWM signal, 7 - voltage source for the electronic circuit, 8 - the physical
object under control

The PLC has inputs of the SINK IN type, which are sources of +24 [V]. Opposite
situation occurs in the RN12 dedicated driver. It receives a PWM signal of amplitude 12-15
[V], but in the PLC the outputs are of SINK OUT type being the outows for the current.
A problem of connection of that two units has been solved by the electronic circuit shown in
Fig. 3. In the LTV-847 based circuit a high state generated by the encoder causes the ow
of current through the photodiode on input U1. Thanks to that the corresponding transistor
switches into the conduction state and couples PLCc input X1 with its ground GND. Such
realisation at a frequency dependent on the velocity of the belt drive changes the input into
the high states allowing measurement of actual rotational velocity in time Ti [ms]. In Fig. 4

179
 U1
Encoder IN X1

R2 R1
Encoder 0V GND PLC
100 PC817A 2200

Ucc +15V
PWM Out
R3 U2

1000
R6
Y0
PC817A 1200

R2 U3

1000 PWM Dir

R5
Y1
PC817A 1000

Ucc 0V 0 PWM

Figure 3. The electronic circuit to form the PWM signal

it corresponds to the function 83.SPD and the two subsequent functions 13.(*), 14.(/)
calculating the velocity by the formula N = R0 /(n Ti ) 103 [rpm], the register R0 stores
the number of impulses being counted on the X0 input. The fourth function on the ladder
has been used to transform the velocity into the format that is acceptable by the 30.PID
function. The register R4 has been multiplied by 237 16383/69 and the result stored in
the R12 register. Function 30.PID is suitable to cooperate in the range 0-16383, that is
relative to the minimum and maximum number of readings from the measuring sensor. The
highest measured velocity was 69 rpm.
The next function 30.PID states the basic PID controller on which the reduced PI
controller has been built. Its parameters follow: Ts = 102 [s] the time of algorithms
execution, SR - number [n] of the rst register containing settings of the PID algorithm, PR
- number [n] of the rst register containing parameters of the algorithm, WR - rst operating
register, OR - the register storing the controllers output. The value stored in OR will be in
the range 0-16383. To transform it on the PWM duty cycles value included in the required
range the function 33.LCNV has been applied. From a linear transformation the function
33.LCNV computes the an output included in the range from 0 to 100%. The PWM duty
cycle is nally stored in the register R31.

4. PI control of a belt drive system

A general schematic view of the control system is visible in Fig. 5. The reference angular
velocity of the belt drive should be maintained at constant value. Without any control the

180
velocity signicantly varies because of the high stiness of the belt and the frictional contact
described in Section 3, that causes irregular forcing of the belt drive. Applying the described
PI control with parameters P = 3000 and I = 8000 the rotational velocity is stabilized much
better. Results have been shown in Fig. 6 and 7.

X3 Y1
N0000
X1 X2 M0
N0001
X1 M1
N0002
X2 M2
N0003
83.SPD
N0004 EN S: X0 OVF
TI: 10
D: R0
13.(*)
N0005 EN Sa: R0 D=0
Sb: 6
U/S D: R3 D<0

14.(/)
N0006 EN Sa: R3 D=0
Sb: 5
U/S D: R4 ERR

13.(*)
N0007 EN Sa: R4 D=0
Sb: 223
U/S D: R12 D<0

M2 30.PID Y9
N0008 A/M Ts: 1 ERR
SR: R6 Y8
BUM OR: R26 HAL
PR: R14 Y7
D/R WR: R21 LAL
33.LCNV
N0009 EN Md: 0
S: R26
Ts: R27
D: R31
L: 1
M2 M0 139.HSPWM
N0010 EN Pw: 0 ACT
Op: 0
Rs: 0
Pn: 182
OR: R31
WR: R1000

M1 M0 139.HSPWM
N0011 EN Pw: 0 ACT
Op: 0
Rs: 0
Pn: 182
OR: R32
WR: R1001

Figure 4. FATEK ladder diagram controling the PWM duty cycle in the PI control

181
 xref PLC V PWM PWM RN12 V
dc-motor x
generating unit driver PZTK 64-42J

Encoder
GI333

Figure 5. A schematic diagram of the control system

Figure 6. The minimum and maximum pulse width in the non-controlled velocity speed

Figure 7. The minimum and maximum pulse width in the PI-controlled velocity speed

5. Conclusions
A rst attempt of programming of the selected PLC controller has been described, as well
as a basic PI algorithm of realizing the PWM control applied. As the literature overview
presents, the PWM control is not so popular, therefore the approach applied in this work

182
becomes very interesting. The obtained results are promising showing better response of
the controlled system subject to chaotic disturbances of the driving system caused by the
discontinuous stick-slip vibrations. In comparison to the PI-controlled belt-drive system, the
non-controlled one was not capable to maintain the velocity at a sudden appearance of the
external moment of force. The PLC controller is not programmed so intuitively as one could
expect, but the aim of the work has been achieved. Presently, there are conducted some
experiments to regulate the velocity at very low levels and at much higher frequencies of the
PWM wave (in this work it was performed only at 1 [kHz]) - up to the maximum acceptable
by the RN12 motor driver. Testing of improved and more accurate control will be done by
realisation of known and repeatable moment of force applied directly to the belt.

Acknowledgements
The authors have been supported by the National Center of Science under the grant MAE-
STRO 2, No. 2012/04/A/ ST8/00738 for years 2012-2015 (Poland).

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Wojciech Kunikowski, (Eng.): Lodz University of Technology, M.Sc. student of Mechatronics

at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, 1/15 Stefanowski Str., 90-924 Lodz, Poland (woj-
[email protected]). The author gave a presentation of this work at the conference.

Jan Awrejcewicz, (Professor): Lodz University of Technology, Department of Automation,

Biomechanics and Mechatronics, 1/15 Stefanowski Str., 90-924 Lodz, Poland (jan.awrejce
[email protected]).

Pawel Olejnik, (Ph.D.): Lodz University of Technology, Department of Automation, Biome-

chanics and Mechatronics, 1/15 Stefanowski Str., 90-924 Lodz, Poland ([email protected]).

184