Velocity Control of Magnet-Type Automatic Pipe Cutting Machine and Measurement of Slipping Using MEMS-Type Accelerometer

자석식 자동 파이프 절단기의 정속제어와 MEMS 형 가속도계를 이용한 미끄럼 측정

In this paper, a magnet-type automatic pipe cutting machine that binds itself to the surface of the pipe using magnetic force and executes unmanned cutting process is proposed. During pipe cutting process when the machine moves around the pipe laid vertical to the gravitational field, the gravity acting on the pipe cutting machine widely varies as the position of the machine varies. That is, with same driving force from the driving motor the cutting machine moves faster when it climbs down the surface of the pipe and moves slower when it climbs up to the top of the pipe. To maintain a constant velocity of the pipe cutting machine and improve the cutting quality, the authors adopted a conventional PID controller with a feedforward effort designed based on the encoder measurement of the driving motor. It is, however, impossible for the encoder at the motor to measure the absolute position and consequently the absolute velocity of the cutting machine in the case where the slip between the surface of the pipe and wheel of the cutting machine is not negligible. As an attempt to obtain a better estimation of the absolution angular position/velocity of the machine the authors proposes the use of the MEMS-type accelerometer which can measure static acceleration as well as dynamic acceleration. The estimated angular velocity of the cutting machine using the MEMS-type accelerometer measurement is experimentally obtained and it indicates the significant slipping of the machine during the cutting process.