Mathematical Problems in Engineering
Volume 2010 (2010), Article ID 973482, 27 pages
doi:10.1155/2010/973482
Review Article

Time Domain Simulation of a Target Tracking System with Backlash Compensation

Maurício Gruzman,1 Hans Ingo Weber,1 and Luciano Luporini Menegaldo2

1Departamento de Engenharia Mecânica, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, R. Marquês de São Vicente 225, 22453-900 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
2Departamento de Engenharia Mecânica, Instituto Militar de Engenharia, Praça General Tibúrcio 80, Praia Vermelha, 22290-270 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

Received 15 July 2009; Accepted 23 September 2009

Academic Editor: José Balthazar

Copyright © 2010 Maurício Gruzman et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

This paper presents a model of a target tracking system assembled in a moving body. The system is modeled in time domain as a nonlinear system, which includes dry friction, backlash in gear transmission, control input tensions saturation, and armature current saturation. Time delays usually present in digital controllers are also included, and independent control channels are used for each motor. Their inputs are the targets angular errors with respect to the system axial axis and the outputs are control tensions for the motors. Since backlash in gear transmission may reduce the systems accuracy, its effects should be compensated. For that, backlash compensation blocks are added in the controllers. Each section of this paper contains a literature survey of recent works dealing with the issues discussed in this article.