Real-Time performance enhancement of Electro Pneumatic System for position tracking applications using Iterative Learning Controller

• Sundarrajan Sathiyavathi

• Mahalingam Gowri Shankar

  Sri Ragavendra polytechnic college

• Kumar Gomathi

  VIT

• Pallakkattur Muthusamy Arunkumar

  kongu Engineering College

This study investigates the application of Iterative Learning Control (ILC) for the precise regulation of piston displacement in an electro-pneumatic system (EPS), a technology that has gained prominence in various industrial applications. EPS combines the advantages of electrical control and pneumatic power to offer versatile automation solutions, yet it is not without its limitations, such as nonlinearity, limited precision, energy consumption, noise, vibration, complex maintenance, and response time. Despite these drawbacks, electro-pneumatic systems remain valuable for numerous industrial applications, especially those that benefit from the simplicity, durability, and cost-effectiveness of pneumatic power. This research aims to leverage ILC to enhance control and mitigate some of these limitations, offering a more refined and efficient solution for electro-pneumatic cylinder control in practical industrial settings. Simulation and real-time experiments are carried out to test the performance of ILC. When comparing step input, sine wave, and sawtooth responses of ILC and a PID controller, it shows that ILC exhibits superior performance, particularly in crucial aspects such as minimal settling time, overshoot, and error indices as compared to the PID controller. However, the PID controller exhibits a better rise time, attributed to model uncertainties in the ILC design. These findings emphasize the effectiveness of ILC in managing unexpected nonlinearities within industrial pneumatic applications, offering an improved and more refined control solution for practical industrial settings.

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