Reversal Angle Control of Windshield Wiper Motor Using a Reference Governor

Abstract

In recent years, a windshield wiper system that moves its wiper arms back and forth by reversing the motor's rotation direction has widely spread. The wiper motor control in this system has to control the reversal angle of the wiper arms to meet the regulations and prevent collision with the windshield frame. However, the reversal angle is sometimes disturbed by rainfall, voltage fluctuations from the electric power supply, deterioration of the wiper blade, etc. In this paper, the windshield wiper control that solves the issue is proposed. It precisely controls the reversal angle of the wiper arms using a state feedback controller and a reference governor. The state feedback controller is designed by an optimal regulator and the reference governor is designed based on the principle of model predictive control. The effectiveness of the control is demonstrated by experimental results with a wiper test rig.