4.1. Experimental Platform
In order to realize the effective control of bi-directional swing motion of the SMA actuated parallel platform, a control system is built, as shown in
Figure 2. It mainly consists of a nozzle simulation platform, ball bearings, a computer, dSPACE, five laser displacement sensors, three voltage-controlled constant current sources, and three SMA actuators. When viewed from the platform's top, the SMA actuators are arranged 120°apart from each other and marked as 1, 2, and 3 in the counterclockwise direction. Three of the five laser displacement sensors in the system are used to measure the linear displacement generated by the SMA actuators, and the other two are used to measure the swing angles of the nozzle indirectly.
The displacement measurement principle of the SMA actuator on the platform is shown in
Figure 3. When the SMA actuators make the nozzle swing, the slider of the rail connected to the platform by the insulated cable makes movement, and the displacement values measured by the laser displacement sensors are the displacement values of the SMA actuators at that time.
The swing angle measurement principle of the indirect measurement is shown in
Figure 4. The relationship between the swing angle and the displacement value measured by the sensor is as follows:
4.2 Experiment results
In order to evaluate the control effect of the MFA-SMC method, the proposed control method is used to make the platform complete the motion control of bi-directional swing, respectively. The motion trajectory formed by the O4 point is selected as the reference curve to derive the expected trajectory of the swing angles and when the SMA actuated parallel platform performs bi-directional swing motion.
When the SMA actuated parallel platform performs bi-directional swing motion, there are three different cases.
Case (1): the trajectory of the O4 point is in the plane where SMA actuator 1 is located;
Case (2): the trajectory of the O4 point is in the plane where SMA actuator 2 is located;
Case (3): the trajectory of the O4 point is in the plane where SMA actuator 3 is located.
The following are the experimental results for different cases.
For case (1), the trajectory simulation curves of the O4 point in 3D coordinates and its projection on the OXY plane are shown in
Figure 5 (a) and (b), respectively. The green line (labeled 1) in
Figure 5(b) indicates the first moving trajectory of the O4 point, and then the O4 point moves along the red line (labeled 2) and then repeats.
In this case, the trajectory of bi-directional swing motion is generated according to the following steps:
① The O4 point is moved from the center to the edge, and the coordinates change as follows: , , and .
② The O4 point is moved back to the other side, and the coordinates change as follows: , , and .
③ The above steps are repeated to achieve bi-directional swing motion.
In the experiment, the parameters of the MFA-SMC method are set as follows: , , , and .
The experimental results obtained by applying the MFA-SMC method are shown in
Figure 6 and
Figure 7. (a), (b), (c) and (d) in
Figure 6 show the tracking curves and error curves of the swing angles, and (a), (b) and (c) in
Figure 7 show the displacement curves of the three SMA actuators. From
Figure 6, it can be seen that after applying this method, by controlling the motion of the three SMA actuators separately, the proposed method can effectively track the reference curves of the swing angles
and
to realize bi-directional swing motion of the platform.
From the experimental results in
Figure 7 (a), (b) and (c), it can be seen that in this case, the motion of the three SMA actuators is as follows: SMA actuator 1 first produces a positive displacement, i.e., SMA actuator 1 contracts, and the displacements of SMA actuators 2 and 3 are negative, i.e., SMA actuators are stretched. Currently, the SMA actuated parallel platform performs the trajectory motion of the green line (labeled 1) in
Figure 5(b). When the displacement of SMA actuator 1 reaches the first wave crest and turns to the wave trough, the platform starts to carry out the trajectory of the red line (labeled 2) in
Figure 5(b). After the displacement of SMA actuator 1 reaches the wave trough, it moves back toward the wave crest again, and SMA actuators 2 and 3 perform the opposite motion. The above process is repeated continuously to complete bi-directional swing motion of the platform.
For case (2), the trajectory simulation curves of the O4 point in 3D coordinates and its projection on the OXY plane are shown in
Figure 8 (a) and (b), respectively. The green line (labeled 1) in
Figure 8(b) indicates the first moving trajectory of the O4 point, and then the O4 point moves along the red line (labeled 2) and then repeats.
In this case, the trajectory of bi-directional swing motion is generated according to the following steps:
① The O4 point is moved from the center to the edge, and the coordinates change as follows: , , and .
② The O4 point is moved back to the other side, and the coordinates change as follows: , , and .
③ The above steps are repeated to achieve bi-directional swing motion.
In the experiment, the parameters of the MFA-SMC method are set as follows: , , , and .
The experimental results obtained by applying the MFA-SMC method are shown in
Figure 9 and
Figure 10. (a), (b), (c), and (d) in
Figure 9 show the tracking curves and error curves of the swing angles, and (a), (b), and (c) in
Figure 10 show the displacement curves of the three SMA actuators. From
Figure 9, it can be seen that after applying this method, by controlling the motion of the three SMA actuators separately, the proposed control method can effectively track the reference curves of the swing angles
and
to realize bi-directional swing motion of the platform.
From the experimental results in
Figure 10, it can be seen that in this case, the motion of the three SMA actuators is as follows: SMA actuator 2 first produces a positive displacement, i.e., SMA actuator 2 contracts, and the displacements of SMA actuators 1 and 3 are negative, i.e., SMA actuators are stretched. Currently, the SMA actuated parallel platform performs the trajectory motion of the green line (labeled 1) in
Figure 8(b). When the displacement of SMA actuator 2 reaches the first wave crest and turns to the wave trough, the platform starts to carry out the trajectory of the red line (labeled 2) in
Figure 8(b). After the displacement of SMA actuator 2 reaches the wave trough, it moves back toward the wave crest again. The above process is repeated continuously to complete bi-directional swing motion of the platform.
For case (3), the trajectory simulation curves of the O4 point in 3D coordinates and its projection on the OXY plane are shown in
Figure 11 (a) and (b), respectively. The green line (labeled 1) in
Figure 11(b) indicates the first moving trajectory of the O4 point, and then the O4 point moves along the red line (labeled 2) and then repeats.
In this case, the trajectory of bi-directional swing motion is generated according to the following steps:
① The O4 point is moved from the center to the edge, and the coordinates change as follows: , , and .
② The O4 point is moved back to the other side, and the coordinates change as follows: , , and .
③ The above steps are repeated to achieve bi-directional swing motion.
In the experiment, the parameters of the MFA-SMC method are set as follows: , , , and .
The experimental results obtained by applying the MFA-SMC method are shown in
Figure 12 and
Figure 13. (a), (b), (c), and (d) in
Figure 12 show the tracking curves and error curves of the swing angles, and (a), (b), and (c) in
Figure 13 show the displacement curves of the three SMA actuators. From
Figure 12, it can be seen that after applying this method, by controlling the motion of the three SMA actuators separately, the proposed method can effectively track the reference curves of the swing angles
and
to realize bi-directional swing motion of the platform.
From
Figure 13, it can be seen that in this case, SMA actuator 3 first produces a positive displacement, i.e., SMA actuator 3 contracts, and the displacements of SMA actuators 1 and 2 are negative, i.e., SMA actuators are stretched. At this time, the SMA actuated parallel platform performs the trajectory motion in the direction of labeled 1 (green arrow line) in
Figure 11(b). When the displacement of SMA actuator 2 reaches the first wave crest and turns to the wave trough, this means that the platform starts to perform the trajectory in the direction of labeled 2 (red arrow line) in
Figure 11(b). It then performs the motion to the next cycle, and so on and so forth, to realize bi-directional swing motion of the SMA actuated parallel platform in the plane where the SMA actuator 3 is located.
The quantitative index, mean absolute errors (MAEs) are used to evaluate the proposed control algorithms, and the specific results are shown in
Table 1. It can be seen from
Table 1 that the MFA-SMC method obtains a small MAE in all three bi-directional swing forms, i.e., the MFA-SMC method is able to obtain the desired tracking accuracy.
In conclusion, both the inverse model-based PID control method and the MFA-SMC method can effectively realize the control of bi-directional swing motion of the SMA actuated parallel platform under different conditions. But compared with the inverse model-based PID control method, the MFA-SMC method can obtain a better control effect and does not need to establish the inverse kinematic model of the platform. In addition, the inverse model-based PID control method needs five laser displacement sensors, while the MFA-SMC method needs only two laser displacement sensors. Hence, the MFA-SMC method uses fewer sensors and can further save the overall hardware cost.