The synchronisation of servo drives using fuzzy logic control

Motion controllers are an essential component of modern manufacturing machinery. The computer control systems are a key part in designing and building production machines. Due to a lack of solid mechanical parts to automatically link motions, coordination and synchronisation problems among the interactive motions are one of the major barriers which can hamper further advances with the new design philosophy. The tight control and flexible operation of a machine with multi-axes can only be realised if the software controlled drives can be properly coordinated and synchronised. This paper presents the concept and implementation of a scheme that uses a fuzzy logic control approach to realise enhanced drive synchronisation. A new master-slave configuration using fuzzy logic is developed. Imperfect synchronisation can be corrected online. The simulation and experimental results show that the fuzzy based 'closed loop synchronisation mechanism' gives enhanced performance when compared to conventional master-slave open loop synchronisation techniques.