Date of Award

2008

Degree Type

Thesis

Department

Mechanical Engineering

First Advisor

Richter, Hanz

Subject Headings

Conveyor belts, Motion control devices, Carrier control systems, Motion Control, Sliding mode control, SMC, Slosh, System identification

Abstract

General motion control of conveyor belts does not present difficulties. When the conveyor belt carries open containers filled with liquid, significant analysis needs to be carried out to design controllers. The objective of this thesis was to design a control system which will allow an open container filled with liquid to be transferred between two stations as fast as possible and without excessive slosh causing the liquid to spill out of the container. This control problem has applications to industrial processing facilities, where open containers are carried by a conveyor belt. The speed at which the open container can be transferred between stations has a direct impact on productivity. The thesis involves determination of the plant (conveyor belt dynamics and the container filled with liquid) model using system identification techniques and examination of candidate control techniques. Simulation results have been shown to validate the approach

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