TRANSACTIONS OF THE INSTITUTE OF MEASUREMENT AND CONTROL, cilt.45, sa.5, ss.986-997, 2023 (SCI-Expanded)
The effective utilization of pneumatic cylinders in precise control
applications requires the correct determination of unpredictable,
variable, and non-linear friction resistance characteristics. Even
though the friction characteristics depend on many structural and
operating variables, the existing expensive experimental methodologies
are prone to error, time-consuming, and have excessive computational
burden. In this study, the full automation of friction force estimation
processes has been designed and implemented with MATLAB/Stateflow
including the execution of all experimental steps, processing of
signals, extraction and classification of data, and estimation of
parameters. An operational graphical user interface has been developed
for entering the required input values of the experimental procedures,
connecting to testing equipment, carrying out experiments, and
presenting obtained model parameters. The friction force parameters of
three pneumatic cylinders, two of which were identical, have been
determined both with the automated method and the manual method. The
automated method has produced better results compared to the manual
method while reducing the total estimation duration drastically. The
pressure tracking performance tests conducted to verify the friction
model parameters have exhibited better tracking performances with the
automated method results.