Variable Cut-Off Frequency Observer-Based Positioning for Ball-Beam Systems Without Velocity and Current Feedback Considering Actuator Dynamics

This paper develops an observer-based positioning scheme for ball-beam systems considering actuator dynamics. The practical constraints are handled systematically, including the mechanical dynamical nonlinearities, mismatched load disturbances, and parameter uncertainties. This result provides contributions as follows. First, parameter-independent observers exponentially estimate the ball velocity, motor speed, and its acceleration to remove the velocity, motor speed, and current feedback. Second, the auto-tuner automatically adjusts the desired closed-loop input-output behaviors to update its cut-off frequency in the transient operations. Third, observer-based active damping injection reduces the closed-loop ball position and actuator speed dynamics to 1 by pole-zero cancellation. Finally, disturbance observers act as a dynamic compensator by estimating the disturbances from model-plant mismatches such as dynamic nonlinearities, mismatched load disturbances, and parameter variations. The experimental study verifies the applicability of the proposed technique using the Quanser Ball-Beam hardware driven by an SRV02 servomotor.