Your task for this unit is to model and develop a digital servo controller for an arm of known mass. In addition to being well controlled, the system must take action in response to a live feed processed by a neural network. You will be given a motor, gearbox, encoder, arm, load, Arduino, motor driver, and power supply.

You will be building a project report throughout the first 11 weeks of this unit. By week 11 each of you will have produced a report that includes the following headings: Introduction, Electrical & Mechanical Parameters, Control System Model, Control System Performance, Neural Network. Use 2 cm margins and Arial 10 pt font. 

The first step is to measure your system parameters and begin to write your report. This first submission should contain a very brief introduction to the task and contain all the key system parameters section. Important system parameters include:

• Mass and dimensions of any moving components.
• Current and voltage limitations of supplies, sources, drivers etc.
• Friction torques
• DC motor characteristics
• Mechanical layout (a simple diagram indication coordinate frames)

This part of the report should not exceed 2 pages, and may need to be shorter to allow your full report in 5 pages. Consider breaking your parameters section into two parts: electrical and mechanical. Your report will be graded as follows for a maximum of 15 marks.

            0-5 marks: presentation and report structure. Use a consistent style. Proof-read your document for grammatical and typographical mistakes. Use accurate and concise language. Examples of inaccurate language include: “An elephant went to the store to buy milk. It was awesome” What was awesome, the milk or the trip? “Last night I shot an elephant in my pajamas.” Who was wearing the pajamas, you or the elephant?

            0-10 marks: Accurate description of all relevant system parameters.

4 Assignments will be given. All tasks on each assignment must be completed by the given deadlines. Each will be marked as complete or incomplete. Questions and rubrics to be posted with questions.

Respond to feedback on Report 1. Prepare a circuit diagram for your system and add it to the section on electrical parameters. You may wish to add a functional block diagram for your control system (consider using simulink/simscape), and include it in a new section on the Control System Model. Your diagrams should be small, but contain legible text. The page limit for this report is 3 pages. Additional pages will be penalized by 1 mark out of 15 per page.

0-5 marks: presentation and report structure. Use a consistent style. Proof-read your document for grammatical and typographical mistakes. Use accurate and concise language.

0-5 marks: Diagram presentation, including clearly labelled components.

0-5 marks: Accurate diagrams that align with report details.

Complete a section describing an electro-mechanical model of the system. Here you must derive an equation of motion for your system. Describe assumptions and expected limitations of the model. Do not ignore friction. First present the open loop equation of motion, then propose a control approach. Finally present the equation of motion after implementing your control approach. The input to the closed loop system should be a demanded angle.

0-5 marks: presentation and report structure. Use a consistent style. Proof-read your document for grammatical and typographical mistakes. Use accurate and concise language. Additional pages will be penalized by 1 mark out of 15 per page.

0-10 marks: Clear, accurate, and concise treatment of the electromechanical system. Ensure that all symbols used in the equations are defined in the text.

Model your control system performance using simscape and simulink. Create an electrical plant, a mechanical plant, and a controller. Develop a system that is stable for any movement command up to 45 degrees. Create a plot showing 45 degree movements from -90 to 270 degrees. Show the demanded position and actual position on the same plot. Measure the maximum settling time, overshoot, and steady state error. Consider an additional plot showing some system parameter that you find informative.

0-5 marks: presentation and report structure. Use a consistent style. Proof-read your document for grammatical and typographical mistakes. Use accurate and concise language.

0-10 marks: Well-presented numerical model with clear plots and performance indicators.

Use your system model to program the physical control system. Make measurements of real system performance and compare them to your model performance. Update your report to include measured performance. Your system will be graded in week 11 after you submit your final report. Observed performance should match reported performance. For full marks, control the demanded position using the output of a CNN in Matlab. Each system (for a group of 2) will receive 1 grade. Log books for that group will be used to create individual grades for the demonstration where the average of the individual grades will equal the group grade

Assessment criteria: 15/100 marks for CNN control of the arm position. Full marks if operating at more than 1 position command per second.

For any step change of 45 degrees from any position.

20 marks for a system with less than 10 degree of overshoot,

20 marks for less than 2 degrees of SSE at all position,

20 marks for less than 1 second response time. 

25 marks for a control system that is always stable.

Half marks for getting about half way there for each criteria.

Complete your report by adding measured data to your system response plots. Compare the measured data to the model predictions. Be sure the model data reflects system parameters described earlier in the report. Include descriptions of how the measurements were made and what their significance is.

Include a brief section describing any deep learning control that you may have incorporated.

0-5 marks for presentation

0-10 marks for clear, concise and complete description and specification.

Whenever working on your major project you should use an individual log book to document your progress. This may be a bound paper document or an electronic log. In grading you log book, we will be looking for dates and times of work done, as well as evidence of quality work, especially the application of science or engineering practice. This is your chance to show the good work you have done on the group project. Include sketches, diagrams, calculations, data etc. A table of contents, which is completed as you go, and points to significant or useful pages can also be useful. (One third of marks for evidence of work and attendance in pracs; one third for legibility, traceability and organisation; one third for evidence of Technical content including sketches, calculations etc.

Your log book will be used to determine an individual grade for the Project Demonstration.

(10 marks total)

1. Dates for work are shown
2. Log book contains raw collected data (where appropriate)
3. Log book contains entries for all weeks
4. Log book contains reflections, conclusions, ideas, etc that give insight into student’s thinking and learning
5. represents a living document that is clearly used. It was clearly on hand during pracs and contains notes, marks, edits, diagrams etc from the user, peers, tutors etc.
6. (3 marks) contains substantial content related to all aspects of the project: system parameters, circuit design, system modelling, controller programming
7. Identifying and contact details are given in the first few pages. Date range is also good. -0.5 marks if only 2 identifiers are used (eg. Name and class, or name and student number). 3 identifiers are better: eg. Name, student number, class, email, phone number…
8. ½ mark for table of contents including page numbers
9. ½ mark for being presentable and legible.

The final exam will cover topics dealt with in lectures on assignments and in prac. You are permitted one A4 sheet of hand-written notes.