REPETITIVE CONTROLLER FOR PERIODIC DISTURBANCE REJECTION IN

MOTOR-GEAR TRANSMISSION SYSTEM

Sangeetha G.R Dr. Jeevamma Jacob
Post graduate Student, Instrumentation and control engineering Professor, Electrical Engineering Department
National Institute of Technology, Calicut, Kerala
ABSTRACT
In control systems, disturbance or reference inputs invariably
include a significant periodic component with a known period.
Repetitive controllers are those control elements that
strategically reduce or nullify the effect of these repeating
signals. In motor gear transmission system, the tooth-to-tooth
error manifests as periodic disturbance. Repetitive control has
by now proved as an effective control scheme for improving
periodic disturbance attenuation performance .This paper
aims to formulate the repetitive controller design for the Motor
-Gear system as an optimization problem with an LMI (Linear
Matrix Inequality) constraint on the free parameter of the
bandwidth of the filter and demonstrate the effect of such a
controller through MATLAB simulation. The filter is used to
cater to the stability requirements of the system with the
repetitive controller incorporated with it. The form of the
repetitive controller is based on a single parameter determined
by the fundamental period of the disturbance. It is
demonstrated through the results that the repetitive
controller indeed reduces the periodic disturbances. Also as the
bandwidth is increased, stability is found to be at stake
whereas the disturbance rejection is affected if the bandwidth
is reduced.
I. INTRODUCTION
Often , the operation of mechanical systems, involved in the
practical applications are repetitive in nature. This inherent
repetitive nature manifests in such a way that , either a periodic
signal need to be tracked or a periodic disturbance is to be rejected.
Motor-Gear transmission system is a suitable candidate, in this
regard , to study the nature and effect of such a periodic
disturbance due to its profound significance in the industrial,
office and household scenarios(ego blowers, extruders in
petrochemical plants, CD drives, printers etc). This paper deals
with the rejection of periodic disturbances contributed by the
tooth-to-tooth error of the gears.
Since the signal (either tracking or rejection) is periodic in nature
,the major concern is to find a controller that tracks/rejects the
signal in each repeating cycle. The repetitive controller is one right
choice to meet the above requirement. is basically a learning
controller which expects(learns) the pattern of the repeating signal
and suitably modifies the control input so that the desired tracking
of the setpoint or rejection of the disturbance is done.
Though originally conceived and formulated in the continuous
domain for Single Input Single Output Linear Time Invariant
systems by Inoue et al[14],its discrete domain counterpart ,of
which analysis and synthesis was done by Tomizuka et al[4],finds
greater acceptance when it comes to implementation of the
controller. From then on repetitive control finds widespread
application in control of disk drives [11], rejection of load
disturbances, motor speeds ripple reduction etc. An additional
advantage of the controller stems from the fact that it can be used
as a plug in module without affecting the structure of the plant.
978-1-4244-2746-8/08/$25.00 2008 IEEE
Much of the progress done in the field of repetitive control is
compiled in [6]. In addition to those explained in [6], further work
has been carried out concerning repetitive controller based on H
infinity by Weiss et al [9]
Stability of the repetitive controller has been a cause of concern
due to the inclusion of the delay elements in a positive feedback in
the closed loop. After some initial efforts by Inoue et al[14] ,Hara
et al [5] ,proposed that the inclusion of a low pass filter into the
controller structure could guarantee stability of the total system
subject to certain constraints[6].With this, however a new issue
surfaces. Higher the bandwidth of this filter, better is the
disturbance rejection, but at the cost of stability and vice versa.
Therefore a balance needs to be attained in this regard such that
optimum disturbance rejection/tracking is guaranteed without
affecting stability.
The approach of this paper is to maximize the bandwidth
constrained by stability requirement. Thus the problem is
formulated as a linear objective minimization of the free parameter
of the bandwidth of the filter, subject to LMI constraints as
imposed by the Lyapunov function for time-delay differential
systems [1].This is an alternate simpler approach to the two Degree
of Freedom controller implemented in [2]. The compensated plant
considered here is a linear time invariant system with norm
bounded uncertainties.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 introduces
the system, followed by a brief theory on repetitive control in
section 3. The modeling of the system follows in section 4 leading
to the repetitive controller design in section 5. Section 6 gives the
results obtained using simulation of the controlled system,
followed by the analysis of the results and winding up with
conclusion and future scope.
II. SYSTEM DESCRIPTION
motor

Figure 1. Cross section of the BLDC motor.
The motor commonly used in the printers is the brushless DC
motor (BLDC), the constructional features of which are shown in
fig I. . Shaft, stator windings and rotor magnet being the primary
components, the Hall effect sensors are used for sensing the
velocity.
Figure 2. The motor-gear transmission system.
IV.SYSTEM MODELLING
(4)
rJ\rJ\ ...
o '[,1 2 . ~
~
~ , +
Crp(s) is the repetitive control loop and d(t) is the disturbance
signal .The reference signal is taken as zero. K C(s) pes) is
considered the compensated plant without the repetitive controller.
K is the frequency sensor gain and C(s) is a conventional
controller. q(s) is the filter used to guarantee the stability of the
motor gear system with the repetitive controller added to it. The
closed loop system in effect realized as a time delay system is as
shown.
where
Figure 3. Positive feedback repetitive control loop
Figure 4. Repetitive system for the motor gear transmission,
courtesy ref [1]
The state space modeling of the motor-gear transmission system is
included in the Appendix I. The repetitive controller is then
incorporated into it to get the effective model as a time delay
differential system on which the Lyapunov theorem can be applied
[1].Fig .4 shows the basic arrangement of the system with the
controller.
transfer function can be implemented as a positive feedback loop
-Tp.s
with e in the feedback as shown in fig 3.
From a frequency point of view, the transfer function in (3) has
the property of infinity gain at frequencies n/T for all n element
of integers. This property assures zero-error tracking at these
frequencies in closed loop. Therefore, the basic repetitive structure
learns a signal of length Tp and repeats it as a periodical signal of
period Tp if the input to the system is set to zero. In the discrete
domain, the transfer function that should be included in the loop is
-N
l-z
(1)
Repetitive control - a form of learning control - is based on the
simple premise that a controller can be designed to identify certain
periodic patterns in a process and to improve the system's
performance by learning to expect these patterns. As with humans,
performance is expected to improve as the repetition of the task
increases.
The prime requirement for pnntIng is maintaining constant
velocity at the output side without which there can be banding
effects. Such banding artifacts are common in electro
photographic processes, which is the basic imaging technology
used in printers and copiers. The motor-gear transmission system is
shown component wise in fig 2.PLL is used to generate a signal,
proportional to the error between the desired angular velocity as
generated by oscillator and that sensed by the Hall effect sensors,
to drive the PWM. The PWM then modifies the current flowing
through the stator windings such that the motor velocity is
maintained constant. However this is the case when the velocity of
the motor shaft is used to regulate the motor velocity. The main
drawback is that ,often the disturbances arising between the motor
shaft and the gear is not accounted for [2]. The role of repetitive
controller comes in this case wherein it is used to reject the
periodic disturbances contributed by the tooth- to -tooth error of
the gear train.
As discussed in [2],the major contributors towards the
disturbances eccentricity of the gears as well as the uneven
meshing of the gear teeth. The gear geometry and the rotational
speed gives an idea about the frequency of the disturbances. The
periodic disturbances in our system of study have a fundamental
frequency of 8Hz.
III.REPETITIVE CONTROL - THEORY BEHIND
n=-oo
Then, by the Internal Model Principle, the following transfer
function should be included in the control loop,
(1/ s);r';l
p
)2
(2)
p
)2
which can be stated in closed form as [12 ]
-Tp.s
e 2
=
e-Tp.s
Because is a delay term with a gain T ,it will be
The simplest implementation of a repetitive controller basically
comprises a FIFO (First-In-First-Out) memory buffer with N taps
(ie. N memory elements) captured inside a positive feedback loop
where N times the sampling time Ts is equal to the fundamental
period of the periodic disturbance. Such a buffer inside a loop, also
called memory loop, can be considered as an autonomous periodic
signal generator.
A periodic signal (with period Tp) can be developed in Fourier
series as
enough to include inside the control loop. This
e-Tps
+ + (5)
and the matrix is
=
constraint as follows. The description of an LMI is included in the
Appendix II.
Minimize -lover P, and y satisfying (9).
Due to the presence of non-linear terms like Jl-Ip and
-yQ in the LMI condition, to solve the linear convex optimization
problem, Q and Jl must fIXed.
V. REPETITIVE CONTROLLER DESIGN
1r
22
=
1r =
At this point we make two assumptions, for the validity of the
theorem that would be applied.
Assumption 1: The closed loop system without the repetitive
controller is stable for all uncertainties
Assumption 2: A B is stable.
Where, OJe is a roughly estimated value from the nominal plant.
Theorem: [2]
Subject to assumptions 1and 2, the repetitive control system is
robustly asymptotically stable independent of period T if, for some
weighting matrix Q>O and constant Jl>O, there exists a matrix P>O
and scalars, -1, satisfying the LMI,
t
-90
(deg):

(dB): 13.4
Design steps for disturbance rejection using repetitive controller
Design of Filter Bandwidth-
a. Get the state space representation of the above combined
Transfer function and use them to obtain the matrices
A
o
' Ado, Al (described in Appendix III) which are affinely
dependent on the cutoff frequency, OJe
b. Write the LMI program on MATLAB LMI lab and obtain the
maximum possible value of using the mincx command by
framing the problem as a linear objective minimization problem on
the free parameter, tiOJ
6. Obtain the simulink model for the same and analyse the
result.
Design parameters [2]
Plant- 600dpi EP engine
Fundamental period of disturbance-8Hz=50 rad/s
Constant reference velocity-3.l4 rad/s
Plant transfer function
P(s) = 26195.5071 / (s2+561.3282s+5581.9398) [2]
Compensator Design

-40
""'='
Q,l
...............
2 0
be

1. Start with the plant transfer function.

2. Using the fundamental period, Tp, of the disturbance, fix
the parameters of the repetitive controller, e-sT, in the
continuous domain.
3. Fix the loop gain and the bandwidth required for
disturbance rejection considering the fundamental period
of the disturbance.
4. Design a compensator that fulfills the above
requirements, if the plant frequency response by itself
does not have disturbance rejection characteristics.
5. Get the combined transfer function of the plant
compensator cascaded system.
(7)
(6)
(8)
0]
T
0 <0
T
0 11
33
where (9)
1( _[PA +A6'P+Q
PA
dO
]
II -
-Q
do
[PAd]

1l'12 =
0 0
1(13 =[P:

_[H -B H rrr
The repetitive control is performed by the delay element -sT
The time period T is the fundamental period of the periodic
disturbance. The objective is to stabilize the overall system which
is destabilized by the inclusion of the repetitive controller. This
zeroes down to finding out the maximum cutoff frequency me of
the low pass filter, where OJ
e
is expressed as
OJ
e
me
Thus the repetitive controller design is formulated as a standard
problem of linear objective minimization subject to an LMI
Figure 5. Bode plot of the Motor-Gear Transmission System
As is observed from Fig 5., the cut- off frequency is approx 50
rad/s ,i.e corresponding to the frequency of 8Hz, which caters to
the disturbance rejection. Also the system on the whole is stable.
Therefore the need for a compensator does not arise.
The step response of the Motor-Gear system is also shown below
in Fig 6.which reiterates the above conclusion.
Figure 6. Step response of the Motor-Gear Transmission system
Figure 9. Magnitude of error reduced after incorporation of
repetitive controller
Free parameter of Bandwidth obtained by solving the LMI using
MATLAB LMI toolbox
A 2.6538
From, we get value of ,hence

c:
me =960.Using this the repetitive controller is implemented and
the results are obtained as shown below.
VI. RESULTS
Time in sec
Figure 7. System with periodic disturbance of 50rad/s
Time in seconds
Figure 8. Error without Repetitive controller
Time insec
Figure 10.Disturbed system output after incorporating repetitive
controller.
As is evident in fig. 7,due to the periodic disturbance, the velocity
is not maintained at 3rad/s,but is fluctuating around the same. The
magnitude of the error with zero reference is shown in fig.8 .Fig.9
and fig. 10 are self explanatory, vividly depicting the marked
reduction in periodic disturbances after the inclusion of the
repetitive controller.
VII. ANALYSIS
As cited earlier, the trade off on bandwidth of the filter associated
with the repetitive controller is between the maximum stability and
the tracking operation ( i.e maintaining the velocity constant.). As
the bandwidth is increased, the stability is lost while the tracking
operation, i.e the disturbance rejection increases. Conversely, the
stability is attained and disturbance rejection decreases with a
decrease in bandwidth. These results are illustrated below.
Time in seconds
Figure 11. output with low bandwidth of filter (unit step input)
Taking Laplace inverse, we get
Xc (t) -(j)cXc (t) u(t)
Yrc (t) ={j)cXc (t - T)
Doing elimination operation using the relation
u(t) e
rc
Xc (t) -{j)cXc (t) {j)cXc (t - e
T
(t) (9)
u(t) e (t) {j)cXc (t -
Introducing the augmented state vector
X [X~ X-;] the following closed loop time delay system may
be obtained.
(5)
U(S) =SX
c
Xc (S){j)c
VIII. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE SCOPE
Time in seconds
From fig11,it can be observed that the stability is maintained but at
the cost of disturbance rejection while in fig .I2,it can be seen that
as the bandwidth is increased, the stability is affected.
Figure 12. Output with high bandwidth
Through this paper, it has been possible to reiterate the
effectiveness of the repetitive controller in periodic disturbance
rejection and this feature has been used to overcome the
disturbances, brought in by improper meshing of gear tooth, in a
Motor-Gear transmission system. As is seen from the figures, the
effect of the repetitive controller starts only after one cycle, which
is the learning phase of the controller. This could instigate future
work in the research front, to reduce this learning period such as to
guarantee accuracy to a greater degree.
X(t) (A M(t))x(t) Adx(t -
Where
[
A
p
-BpCp
A=
-C
p
and the matrix ~ A is
(11)
~ A ( t ) HF(t)E (12)
(1 )
(2)
(13)
(14)
0]
m
F(x) F
o
Lx;,F: > 0
;=1
[
H-B H] [
P p2
p
p2
Where E m is the variable and the symmetric matrices
F F
T R
nxn
.
E ,m
An LMI has the form
APPENDIX II
are given. The inequality
symbol in the equation (10) means that F(x) is positive definite,
. U F (x)u U ERn
I.e for all non zero u .Of course
,the LMI(I8) is equivalent to a set of n polynomial inequalities in
X , i.e, the leading principal minors ofF(x) must be positive.
x p(t) =(A
p
M
p
(t))xp(t) pu(t)
y(t)=(C
p
i\C
p
(t))x
p
(t)
The model resembles the actual system closely only when the
uncertainties are also taken care of. The uncertainties are modeled
here as
[
Mp(t)]=[Hpl ]F(t)E
ACp(t) H p2 P
Where Hpj H
p2
and
p
are known real matrices characterizing the
structure of uncertainty and F is an unknown matrix function with
the property of a
max
[F] 5 I.a
max
max[.] denotes the maximum
singular value.
APPENDIX 1
Assuming first order filter of cutoff frequency roc and taking its
Laplace transform,
(4)
Where q is ofthe form
e-
sT
/(S
and Xc (s) is the dummy state variable
Re-writing (7) as
A very wide variety of problems arising in system and control
theory can be reduced to a few standard convex or quasiconvex
optimization problems involving LMIs. These resulting
optimization problems can be solved numerically very efficiently.
Linear Matrix Inequalities and LMI techniques have emerged as
powerful design tools as ranging from control engineering to
system identification and structural design.
where me is a roughly estimated value from the nominal plant.
Now A and Ad are affinely dependent on the free parameter
and are represented as
A =A
o

Ad AdO
APPENDIX
Let OJc be expressed as
OJ
e
=me
(15)
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[8] Onuki, Y., and Ishioka, H.: 'Compensation for
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132-136.
[9] Weiss, G., and Ha"feIe, M.: 'Repetitive control of MIMO
systems using Hinjinity design', Automatica, 1999, 35, pp. 1185-
1199.
[10] Gahinet, P.'Nemirovski et al LMI tool box user guide
where
[13] C-L Chen, T.C. Chiu "Banding Reduction in
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International Conference onAdvanced Intelligent Mechatronics
Proceedings 6-12 July 2001 Corm, Italy,pp 81-86.
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[11] Chew, K.-K., and Tomizuka, M.: 'Digital control ofrepetitive
errors in disk drive systems " IEEE Control Syst. Mag., 1990, 10,
(1), pp. 16-20.
Now that c has been expressed as above we may resort to the
theorem [2] to find the value of the unknown parameter
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