Fractional order implementation of Integral Resonant Control – A nanopositioning application

By exploiting the co-located sensor-actuator arrangement in typical flexure-based piezoelectric stack actuated nanopositioners, the pole-zero interlacing exhibited by their axial frequency response can be transformed to a
zero-pole interlacing by adding a constant feed-through term. The Integral Resonant Control (IRC) utilizes this unique property to add substantial damping to the dominant resonant mode by the use of a simple integrator implemented
in closed loop. IRC used in conjunction with an integral tracking scheme, effectively reduces positioning errors introduced by modelling inaccuracies or parameter uncertainties. Over the past few years, successful
application of the IRC control technique to nanopositioning systems has demonstrated performance robustness, easy tunability and versatility. The main drawback has been the relatively small positioning bandwidth achievable. This paper proposes a fractional order implementation of the classical integral tracking scheme employed in tandem with the IRC scheme to deliver damping and tracking. The fractional order integrator introduces an additional design parameter which allows desired pole-placement, resulting in superior closed loop bandwidth. Simulations and experimental results are presented to validate the theory. A 250% improvement in the achievable positioning bandwidth is observed with proposed fractional order scheme.