High-performance motion control with slosh: A constrained sliding mode approach

The problem of controlling the rectilinear motion of an open container without exceeding a prescribed liquid level and other constraints is considered using a recently-developed constrained sliding mode control design methodology based on invariant cylinders. A conventional sliding mode regulator is designed first to address nominal performance in the sliding mode. Then an robustly-invariant cylinder is constructed and used to describe the set of safe initial conditions from which the closed-loop controller can be operated without constraint violation. Simulations of a typical transfer illustrate the usefulness of the method in an industrial setting. Experimental results corresponding to a highspeed transfer validate the theory. Copyright © 2008 by ASME.