DESIGN OF A ROBUST CONTROLLER FOR A GRINDING SYSTEM

Grinding is a process that is often used in the manufacture of precisi on components. Variations in position, velocity, and forte trajectorie s can effect part quality by changing part surface finish, geometry, a nd process material removal rate. Thus, controlling the position, velo city, and force is critical to achieving a high quality product from t he grinding process, In designing a compensator for a robust force con trolled grinding system, several constraints must be considered, It is critical that the normal grinding force is decoupled from the tangent ial feed velocity of the system, Therefore, two separate control loops are designed; a standard feed velocity loop and a force loop, Besides decoupling the force and velocity, a variety of other system performa nce specifications must be achieved, To aid in the design of the contr ol loops, several parametric plots are used to visualize the effects o f various control parameters on the closed-loop system dynamics as wel l as the coupling of the two loops.