Active damping of drivetrain vibrations with compensation for time-varying long control cycle due to actuator constraint

This research presents an active damping control system for automobile drivetrains with backlash and limitation on the control cycle. First, a basic experimental apparatus, which simplifies a real vehicle drivetrain, is described. The control cycle limitation due to an engine mechanism makes the control cycle longer and time-varying. In our experimental system, only its essential negative effects on control systems are reproduced by a motor and a digital signal processor. As a countermeasure for the long cycle, the sampled-data controller, which is implemented without discretization, is employed to cope with discrete approximation errors. The time-varying effect causes the phase delay of the control input. Hence, predictive processing using the sampled-data controller and the unscented Kalman filter compensates for the phase delay. Finally, control experiments with some comparison verifications prove the effectiveness of the proposed technique.