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Extremum-seeking control for an Ultrasonic/Sonic Driller/Corer (USDC) driven at high-powerFuture NASA exploration missions will increasingly require sampling, in-situ analysis and possibly the return of material to Earth for further tests. One of the challenges to addressing this need is the ability to drill using for low axial loading while operating from light weight platforms (e.g., lander, rover, etc.) as well as operate at planets with low gravity. For this purpose, the authors developed the Ultrasonic/Sonic Driller/Corer (USDC) jointly with Cybersonics Inc. Studies of the operation of the USDC at high power have shown there is a critical need to self-tune to maintain the operation of the piezoelectric actuator at resonance. Performing such tuning is encountered with difficulties and to address them an extremum-seeking control algorithm is being investigated. This algorithm is designed to tune the driving frequency of a time-varying resonating actuator subjected to both random and high-power impulsive noise disturbances. Using this algorithm the performance of the actuator is monitored on a time-scale that is compatible with its slowly time-varying physical characteristics. The algorithm includes a parameter estimator, which estimates the coefficients of a function that characterizes the quality factor of the USDC. Since the parameter estimator converges sufficiently faster than the time-varying drift of the USDC's physical parameters, the proposed extremum-seeking estimation and control algorithm is potentially applicable for use as a closed-loop health monitoring system. Specifically, this system may be programmed to automatically adjust the duty-cycle of the sinusoidal driver signal to guarantee that the quality factor of the USDC does not fall below a user-defined set-point. Such fault-tolerant functionality is especially important in automated drilling applications where it is essential not to inadvertently drive the piezoelectric ceramic crystals of the USDC beyond their capacities. The details of the algorithm and experimental results will be described and discussed in this paper.
Document ID
20060043804
Acquisition Source
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Document Type
Conference Paper
External Source(s)
Authors
Aldrich, Jack
Sherrit, Stewart
Bao, Xiaoqi
Bar-Cohen, Yoseph
Badescu, Mircea
Chang, Zensheu
Date Acquired
August 23, 2013
Publication Date
February 27, 2006
Meeting Information
Meeting: Smart Structures and Materials Symposium
Location: San Diego, CA
Country: United States
Start Date: February 27, 2006
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
Peek-seeking estimation and control
Ultrasonic/Sonic Driller/Corer
High-power piezoeletric actuator

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