Active Control of Isolation Table Using $H_\infty$ Control

Recently, the high-precision vibration attenuation technology becomes the essence fo the seccessful development of high-integrated and ultra-precision industries, and is expected to continue playing a key role in the enhancement of manufacturing technology. Vibration isolation system using an air-spring is widely employed owing to its excellent isolation characteristics in a wide frequency range. It has, however, some drawbacks such as low-stiffness and low-damping features and can be easily excited by exogenous disturbances, and then vibration of table is remained for a long time. Consequently, the need for active vibration control for an air-spring vibration isolation system becomes inevitable. Furthermore, for an air-spring isolation table to be successfully employed in a variety of manufacturing sites, it should have a guaranteed robust performance not only to exogenous disturbances but also to uncertainties due to various equipments which might be put on the table. In this study, an active vibration suppression control system using H.inf. theory is designed and experiments are performed to verify its robust performance. An air-spring vibration isolation table with voice-coil-motors as its actuators is designed and built. The table is modeled as 3 degree-of-freedom system. An active control system is designed based on control theory using frequency-shaped weighting functions. Analysis on its performance and frequency responce properties are done through numerical simulations. Robust characteristics of control on disturbances and model uncertainties are experimentally verified through (i) the transient response to the impact excitation of the table, (ii) the steady-state response to the harmonic excitation, and (iii) the response to the mass change of the table itself. An LQG controller is also designed and its performance is compared with the controller.