Increasing Mission Reliability Using Open-Loop Control

Abstract

This report proposes to increase the reliability of some single- degree of freedom servo systems by providing a degraded mode of operation in the event of feedback sensor failure. Normally, the system is operated in a closed- loop feedback mode. During normal operation, information is continuously gathered on the disturbing forces encountered and their statistical variations from cycle-to-cycle. This information is used to design an open-loop controller that can take over in the event of sensor malfunction. An ideal closed-loop controller for this purpose is the modified bang-bang controller because the operating cycle for this controller is readily divided into three sections: acceleration, constant velocity, and deceleration. Disturbing forces can be estimated in the three sections. The s-mean and s-variance of the disturbing forces can then be used to design a conservative open-loop cycle. The cycle is conservative in that the target position for open-loop is less than the desired target position by an amount that yields a specified small probability of exceeding the desired target at some specified s-confidence level. The total cycle is then finished using a constant or cyclic motor force or other technique depending on the specific application. We successfully applied the developed techniques to the loading cycle of a large caliber tank ammunition autoloader.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Aug 01, 1993
Accession Number
ADA271208

Entities

People

  • Ronald L. Racicot

Organizations

  • United States Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Ammunition
  • Closed Loop Systems
  • Computers
  • Deceleration
  • Engineering
  • Failure Mode And Effect Analysis
  • Feedback
  • Military Research
  • Monte Carlo Method
  • Open Loop Systems
  • Probability
  • Random Variables
  • Reliability
  • Servomechanisms
  • Simulations
  • Statistics
  • Tank Ammunition

Fields of Study

  • Engineering

Readers

  • Control Systems Engineering.
  • Robotics and Automation.
  • Sensor Fusion and Tracking Systems.