Generalized sampled-data holds to reduce energy consumption in resonant systems

• Several experiments are conducted to test a new design of hold device in real time.
• The new hold is used instead of a ZOH to drive a lightly damped resonant system.
• Transient energy savings around 40–50% are then achieved.
• The new hold eases the elimination of steady-state errors arising from dry friction.
• The hold functionality is computed and produced in controller idle time.

This paper presents an exhaustive experimental study on the performance of a new design of generalized sampled-data hold function (GSHF) introduced in Ugalde, Bárcena, and Basterretxea (2012). First a simple tuning procedure is developed for the GSHF to improve the intersample response while not damaging the plant output response. Next the reconstruction algorithm is enhanced so that the GSHF can remove the steady-state errors that dry friction causes in positioning systems. The experiments conducted on a small-scale lightly damped resonant system show that significant energy savings can be achieved in regulation with no extra hardware, and that no additional computational load results, except having to call the D/A converter more than once per sampling period.