Title: Design of genetic algorithm-based PID controller for a joule heated shape memory spring driven ball and beam system

Authors: Banu Sundareswari Murugesan; Then Mozhi Ganapathy; Dhanalakshmi Kaliaperumal

Addresses: Department of Instrumentation and Control Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, India ' Department of Instrumentation and Control Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, India ' Department of Instrumentation and Control Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, India

Abstract: The ball and beam system is a highly nonlinear laboratory model which helps to understand the modern and classical control theory. This paper presents the position control of a ball and beam system, which is actuated by shape memory alloy (SMA) springs in the antagonistic configuration. The system is designed such that the SMA actuator provides the bidirectional controlled force on the pulley to the beam through the shaft. This bidirectional motion of the beam needs to be controlled for the proper positioning of the ball with an appropriate controller design. Hence it is proposed to design/tune the controller optimally for the effective control and improved performance of the system which is not feasible using conventional Ziegler Nichols (ZN) design. The objectives of this paper are: 1) to use SMA spring as an actuator for ball and beam system; 2) to optimise the PID controller gain with genetic algorithm (GA); 3) to compare the performance of Ziegler Nichols (ZN) PID and GA-PID in simulation and experimentation to show the competence of GA-PID with ZN-PID through performance error indices.

Keywords: shape memory alloy spring; ball and beam system; PID controller; optimisation; genetic algorithm; GA.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMA.2020.110857

International Journal of Mechatronics and Automation, 2020 Vol.7 No.4, pp.182 - 191

Received: 07 Feb 2019
Accepted: 08 Mar 2020
Published online: 30 Oct 2020 *

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