Modelling and distributed controller designof the bodeRC paper-path setup

The BodeRC paper-path setup represents the paper transport path of a printer. It consists of a series of five pinches that transport a sheet of A4 size paper through the path. In this assignment a model and a control system of the paper-path have been designed such that the design trajectory as described in (Visser and Broenink, 2006) can be evaluated. The designed control system is capable of centralised control as well as distributed control. To get a structured approach in the design, the trajectory described by Broenink and Hilderink (2001) was followed. The first step in the trajectory is the design of a model of the physical system, the paper-path. This model was designed, verified with simulations and validated against experiment results on the setup. The results proved the correct functioning of the model. From the results it became clear that the paper detectors on the setup were not precise enough; A small alteration solved this problem. Next, a control system has been designed. This system is capable of controlling the velocity of a sheet of paper throughout the entire paper-path. The control system relies on the presence of loop controllers for the pinches, which have been developed. The complete control system was evaluated, first in simulation together with the model then as embedded control system together with the paper-path setup. The resulting error is within the measurement resolution. Finally, a distribution of the control system was designed. The distributed control system has been verified using simulations. The error proved to stay within the measurement resolution. Because the absence of software that handles the communication between nodes, the distributed control system could not be tested in practise.