Performance Evaluation of a Vibration-Isolation Table with a Redundant Number Active Pneumatic Supports when Applying Actuator Increment/Decrement Procedure Based on Force Redistribution Method

Abstract

This study evaluates the vibration-isolation performances of the vibration-isolation table when the continuous increase / decrease method of the actuator number based on the proposed force re-distribution method is applied. This study deals with a vibration-isolation table supported by redundant number actuators to distribute the load on each actuators, which means that the table is supported by actuators more than the degrees of freedom (DOF) of the table's motion. And, authors have proposed the technique to change a control system stably when increasing / decreasing the number of the actuators according to change of weight and / or a center of gravity of the load object or actuator breaks down. Therefore, this study evaluates the control performances of the technique for increasing / decreasing the number of actuators by the frequency response for disturbance input when increasing / decreasing the number of actuators. The proposed method is a basic technology necessary for the realization of long-term continuous operation while replacing the actuator to avoid from performance deterioration, and realizing scalability which is the ability to flexiblly add/remove the actuators to support the vibration-isolation table.