Sliding Mode Controller Design for High Speed Feed Drives

An adaptive sliding mode control technique is presented for the control of high speed feed drives. The proposed control system is robust against uncertainties in the drive s parameters, maximizes the bandwidth within physical limitations, and compensates for external disturbances such as friction and cutting force. The algorithm is briefly presented, followed by machining tests conducted with contour milling of circles and diamond trajectories. The contour errors are compared against those of a pole placement controller with feedforward friction and servo dynamics compensation. It is shown that the sliding mode controller has practical advantages in rapid tuning and implementation, but requires smooth reference trajectory generation.