Abstract
Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) are widely used in industrial world. In PLC-based control systems, low-resolution (especially ON/OFF) sensors are low-cost, and actuators are commonly used since they are compatible with programming languages used in PLCs.
PLC switches ON/OFF of the actuators as ON/OFF of the sensors changes. In designing PLC-based systems, the design of parameters of these sensors and actuators (e.g., position of limit switches, torque of motors, and so on.) is important problem since they affect on overall performance of the system. This problem, however, has not been fully discussed yet. In this paper, the systematic design method for this problem is developed. The main idea is to express the model of the system as Mixed Logical Dynamical System (MLDS), and to formulate the problem as mathematical programming problem. The developed idea is applied to line following control of two-wheeled vehicle. The usefulness of the proposed method is demonstrated through simulation and experiment.
