Position control based on Gaussian function applied on magneto-rheological fluid disc brake of a hybrid mechanical device (MR brake - DC motor)

This article presents an angular position control, based on the Gaussian function, of a Magneto-Rheological fluid disc brake (MR brake) driven by a DC motor. Our proposed control strategy is to apply a continuous magnetic flux density to the MR brake, which will be maximum when the proportional controller of the DC motor reaches the desired position to brake the hybrid device. The MR brake controller activates a braking torque that adopts the behavior of the Gaussian function instead of a pulsed braking torque as provided by other commonly used controllers (On-Off controllers). The response of the MR brake controller, which is presented in a closed-loop feedback system, depends on the angular position error of the shaft and a tuning parameter representing the critical angular position at which the magnetic flux density, which is applied to the MR brake, reaches 60.65% of its maximum value. The advantage is to avoid knowing the dynamic parameters, such as the inertia of the mechanical device or its speed, and to reject these perturbations by a simple tuning parameter of the MR brake. To show the effectiveness of the proposed controller, the dynamic model of a slider-crank mechanism is considered. The results showed similar behavior as conventional controllers, where overshoot and oscillations were minimized. This behavior has been obtained in other research articles using controllers that require a greater amount of data processing.