Auto-tuning and adaptive control of sheet metal forming

This paper describes the design and implementation of automatic controller tuning and model reference adaptive control (MRAC) to improve part quality in stamping and extends previous work on a manually-tuned fixed-gain process controller. Automatic tuning is described with a discussion of implementation issues in the presence of plant disturbances. Design of a direct MRAC, whose controller gains are continuously adjusted to accommodate changes in process dynamics and disturbances, is investigated, including simulation-based robustness analysis of the adaptation law and a consideration of constrained estimation in the recursive least squares algorithm to address practical implementation issues. The performance of the MRAC process controller designed through simulation is experimentally validated. Good tracking of the reference process variable (i.e., punch force), and significant part quality improvement in the presence of disturbances, is achieved.