LABORATORY SETUP FOR LEARNING FRACTIONAL-ORDER CONTROL SYSTEM.

摘要

Recent years have seen the extensive use of mathematical tool of fractional calculus for modelling of a plethora of real-world and man-made systems. This is because almost all physical systems have fractional dynamics. Especially, the systems with memory and with distributed parameter dynamics have dominant fractionality. As a consequence, the field of fractional-order modelling and control has attracted the attention of diverse research communities. The literature is abundant with many results on this topic, albeit the majority of these are theoretical or simulation exercise. There are very few results on the practical implementation of fractional- order systems. The main reason for this is the unavailability of a dedicated easy-to-use experimental/laboratory setup which can model a fractional-order system. As opposed to the setups for conventional integer-order systems, there is no setup available for fractional- order systems. Such a setup would greatly facilitate the students and researchers interested in pursuing research in the area of fractional-order modelling and control. The setup developed in this invention, the first of its kind, provides an easy-to-use experimentation facility for fractional-order systems. The setup is developed using a dedicated embedded processor. It has the unique feature of reconfigurability of the non-integer order of the system thereby achieving the change in dynamics of the system under study. The setup has a dedicated coprocessor checker to evaluate the correctness of the output of fractional-order system. This training setup, in addition to the conventional deterministic approach, also has the provision to emulate the fractional-order control with stochastic dynamics with the help of wireless system. The table-top and compact structure of the setup allows the user to carry out all types of experimentation, viz., modelling, time and frequency response analysis, system identification and control for a fractional- order system. It will be also useful to control engineers to test their control strategies on fractional-order system. Overall, the designed setup is a novel training instrument that emulates a fractional-order system and control with a variety of features.