ROBUST ESTIMATION AND ADAPTIVE CONTROLLER TUNING FOR VARIANCE MINIMIZATION IN SERVO SYSTEMS

Improving storage density by means of an enhanced servo system typically requires the reduction of variance of the Position Error Signal (PES). The variance of the PES is determined by both period and non-repeatable disturbances for which the characteristics are often not known a-priori during the servo algorithm design. Moreover, the servo control algorithm is often limited to a standard Proportional, Integral and Derivative (PID) controller as more complicated algorithms are viewed to be less robust. In this document it is shown how a standard (PID) servo control algorithm can be augmented with an additional feedback loop that can be tuned automatically by estimating the actual disturbance spectra seen in the PES. Adaptation to the disturbance spectra is done in lieu of possible model uncertainties in the servo actuator, guaranteeing stability robustness. As such, the control algorithm provides a Robust Estimation and Adaptive Controller Tuning (REACT) to disturbance spectra to minimize PES variance in high performance servo systems in data storage applications.