Resumen de Microactuator system for teaching micropositioning control system design
Piotr Skupin, Dariusz Choin´ski
Recent progress in the development of microactuators and other micro-devices for biotechnology has increased the demand forskilled engineers that specialize in this field. This cannot be ignored in the curricula developed by the universities for controlengineering students. The presented paper describes a teaching methodology for graduate students from the control engineeringdepartment who specialize in control of biotechnological systems. A particular emphasis is put on laboratory work, where studentshave an opportunity to gain a practical experience in modeling and control of piezoelectric microactuators. In contrast to theexisting teaching approaches, the position measurement of the microactuator stage is realized in two ways. As a result, it is possibleto compare the effectiveness of positioning controllers with different position sensors. Moreover, in order to develop highercognitive skills in students, the implemented controllers are designed from scratch without using additional packages for controlsystem design. However, due to the limited time available for the realization of the laboratory course the students are divided intotwo groups. Each group (for the chosen measurement technique) designs and implements four structures of the positioning controlsystem: the open-loop and closed-loop systems with and without a model-based compensator. The closed-loop system is based onthe classical proportional-integral (PI) controller. In turn, the model-based compensator uses the inverted Preisach model (bothmicroactuators exhibit hysteresis behavior). At the end of the course, students prepare the final joint report which includes acomparison between all implemented structures using different measurement techniques.
