Products: Automation

In this project, the design and analysis of different types of control algorithms such as PID controller and Different types of Sliding Mode Controllers for under-actuated systems including Single Inverted Pendulum and Double Inverted Pendulum are conducted. To do so, a cart-pole type inverted pendulum, extendable to double or even triple inverted pendulum, in which a DC motor, through a timing belt, transforms the torque into the force and then applies it to the cart is designed and constructed with the aim of performing some experimental tests. The position of the cart, as well as the rotation angle of the pendulum, are measured using two optical rotary encoders; they are the output of the system. The MATLAB Simulink Real-Time software is used to apply the proposed control strategies to the device.

A vibrating sample magnetometer is a scientific instrument that measures materials’ magnetic properties based on Faraday’s Law of Induction. The idea of the fabrication of the VSM machine came to my mind when I joined Concordia University for Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering. Since the topic of my doctoral thesis is associated with magnetic soft robots, I needed this device to measure the magnetic properties of the fabricated robots for modeling and simulation purposes. Considering that the price of this machine was at least over 160,000 (CAD) and Concordia University was not equipped with this device, I fabricated it in about two to three months at the cost of about 10,000 (CAD) with high quality. This idea saved tens of thousands of dollars and helped me continue my research. The fabricated machine has the following specifications. (1) Real-Time field control system with very low noise field control, (2) High signal-to-noise-ratio, (3) High accuracy and repeatability at a constant temperature, (4) This VSM machine can reach fields up to 1.6 T, (5) Rotatable sample holder to ease magnetic properties measurements of the sample at desired angles, (6) Equipped with a high-resolution gaussmeter to measure the real magnetic field surrounding the sample, (7) Dedicated software to record the measurement data online for analysis.

The purpose of this device is to design and evaluate various control algorithms for multi-body dynamic systems. The setup consists of two servomotors that adjust the plate's rotation angles around the longitudinal (x) and lateral (y) axes. A digital camera, positioned directly above the plate, captures the ball’s position using image processing techniques. All computations, including image processing and control signal generation, are performed within MATLAB-Simulink. The resulting control signals are transmitted to a microcontroller, which computes and sends appropriate commands to the servomotors to regulate the plate’s orientation.

The purpose of this project is to design and analyze the application of different types of control algorithms such as PID controller and different types of Sliding Mode Controllers to an under-actuated ball and beam system, experimentally. In the constructed ball and beam setup, a disk attached to the shaft of a DC motor is connected to the beam through a rod, which can adjust the beam orientation by changing the shaft angle. The DC motor shaft angle is measured by a potentiometer connected to it. The position of the ball is determined by two Nickel-Chromium resistance wires which the ball moves on them. The orientation angle of the beam is obtained indirectly from the motor shaft angle. The MATLAB Simulink Real-Time software is used to apply the control methods to the device.