One of our control solutions is using a compact control system for complex measurement, testing and simulation. The key of this solution is developing a Real-time Control Software that runs in a real-time control hardware (for example Compact RIO and ADwin, ) and implementing necessary Hardware Components for driving actuators and measuring the system responses.
The complex control software performs various real-time tasks including simulation, actuator control, data acquisition and scheduled testing process. With an ADwin hardware, the controller can run up to 10 real-time processes in parallel at a high frequency (typically, 10 kHz, 100 kHz or more). Therefore, the flexibility and capability of our real-time control solution are powerful enough for not only structure tests but also for vibration and shock tests in mechanical and aerospace engineering.
Our compact real-time system can control up to 64 closed loop channels for servo hydraulic actuators or electrodynamic shakers, together with up to 256 analog measuring channels.
Hydraulic actuators normally provide large forces, long displacements at relatively low frequencies (DC to hundred Hz) whereas electrodynamic actuators provide smaller forces and shorter strokes but higher frequency range (typically DC to 4 kHz).
For dynamic tests of mechanical components or satellite in aerospace and defense engineering, a wide range of frequencies up to 2 kHz is usually required, electrodynamic shakers are used. For a good real-time control, this needs a dedicated real-time control system in which the real-time loops run at high frequency (eg. higher than 10 kHz, at least five times higher than the considered frequency 2 kHz) like our control solution (can be higher than 100 kHz).
Real-time control of dynamic shaker for testing satellite specimen
Our real-time control solution has a wide range of applications in laboratories and industries. These can be control of single axis tests using one actuator or shaker with the traditional PID control or very complex test systems where multi actuators with various advanced control strategies and algorithms are involved.
