An Integrated Approach to the Analysis and Design of a Three-Axis Cross-Coupling Control System

We propose a controller design analysis for a cross-coupling control system, which is essential for achieving high contouring accuracy in multi-axis CNC systems. The proposed analysis combines three axial controllers for each individual feed drive system together with a cross-coupling controller at the beginning of the design stage in an integrated manner. These two types of controllers used to be separately designed and analyzed since they have different control objectives. The proposed scheme is based on a mathematical formulation of a three-dimensional contour error model and includes a stability analysis for the overall control system and a performance analysis in terms of contouring and tracking accuracy at steady state. A computer simulation was used to demonstrate the validity of the proposed methodology. The performance variation was investigated under different operating conditions and controller gains, and a design range was elicited that met the given performance specifications. The results provide basic guidelines in systematic and comprehensive controller designs for multi-axis CNC systems. A cross-coupling control system was also implemented on a PC-based three-axis CNC testbed, and the experimental results confirmed the usefulness of the proposed control system in terms of contouring accuracy.