Abstract—In the area of production engineering, there are several ongoing efforts to improve manufacturing strategies and processes in terms of stability, quality, and efficiency. Control of process forces is one such appropriate measure for ensuring stable process conditions. This can also ensure reducing the number of parts rejected due to bad quality and thus aiding as a significant economic benefit. However, control of process forces in production machines with electromechanical feed axes is still a developing field and offers space for potential improvement. Control concepts at the process level, which enable a combination of force control and position control still need to be developed. The concept of hybrid force and position control is presented in this article as a possible approach. The implementation and practical testing on an electromechanical feed axis with a modern industrial motion control are described. For the combination of force control and position control, both controllers are integrated into the cascaded servo control at the same level. The controller prioritization and transition is realized with a weighting function, which is supplemented by a confidence interval. The parameterization of the control and the definition of the confidence interval are explained. In addition, various influencing factors are examined and their effects evaluated. The potential and advantages of the concept are elucidated.

Index Terms—electromechanical feed axis, motion control, force control, position control, controller design, controller performance

Cite: André Sewohl, Manuel Norberger, Chris Schöberlein, Armin Schleinitz, Holger Schlegel, and Martin Dix, "Experimental Investigation of Hybrid Force and Position Control on an Electromechanical Feed Axis," International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research, Vol. 11, No. 5, pp. 281-287 May 2022. DOI: 10.18178/ijmerr.11.5.281-287

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