PendCon

Position Control for Two Masses Coupled by a Spring

     




      Simple state space control

      for two disks

      coupled by a spring













This experiment deals with position control for two disks which are coupled by a spring. The first disk can rotate freely or can be coupled to a fixed plate by a second spring. In this case, the transfer function from the input voltage to the deflection ange of the first disk has two weakly damped poles and one zero. Using the PendCon signal generator, this eperiment is ideally suited to teach frequency response.



   



    Configuration of the plant

    where the first disk is attached

    to a fixed plate by a spring







In its simplest version, the second disk can easily be decoupled from the first. One then can use PID control to obtain a desired position of the plant which is double integrating for a rigid plant and weakly damped if the disk is coupled by a spring. If the second disk is coupled,  a parallel combination of two PD contollers has to be used to stabilize the system.