Abstract
Mechanical contact occurs in many engineering applications. Contact dynamics can lead to unwanted dynamic phenomena in mechanical systems. Hence, it would be desirable to investigate the influence of contact dynamics on a dynamical system already in the development stage. An appropriate method is Hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) on mechanical level. However, the coupling procedure in HiL is prone to stability problems and previous studies revealed that HiL tests of systems with contact are even more challenging, as the system dynamics change rapidly when contact occurs. Passivity-based control schemes, well-known from teleoperation, have recently been used to stabilize HiL simulations of systems with continuous dynamics. Here, we investigate the applicability of Normalized Passivity Control to HiL tests of a one-dimensional mass-spring-damper system experiencing contact. Experimental results reveal that this kind of passivity control keeps the test stable and also improves the test fidelity. This research is an important first step in using passivity control for stable and safe hybrid simulation of complex systems with contact using HiL approaches.
Highlights
Testing of components is a crucial step in the development and validation process of products
The applicability of Normalized Passivity Control (NPC) to HiL with contact dynamics and the influence of NPC on the fidelity of the tests depending on the damping scaling parameter GP is investigated
This paper investigates the applicability of Normalized Passivity Control (NPC) to HiL tests, where contact dynamics are involved
Summary
Testing of components is a crucial step in the development and validation process of products. As numerical modeling of contact dynamics is cumbersome and hard to validate, the critical contact scenario must be tested experimentally. If the systems that undergo contact are too large to be tested experimentally or are not available, as they are still in the development process, pure experimental testing is not feasible. In HiL, components of large dynamical systems can be tested with realistic boundary dynamics, as the surrounding structure is simulated numeri-. Normalized Passivity Control (NPC), proposed by [4], has recently been applied to HiL. They show that it is able to stabilize HiL systems with continuous dynamics. The applicability of NPC to HiL tests of dynamical systems with discontinuous dynamics, a system where contact occurs, is experimentally tested.
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