Automatic Tension Control of a Timber Carriage Used for Biomass Collection

Purpose: A lab-scale timber carriage using a servo motor system was built. When two motors move a carriage, wire tension is changed according to the different line speeds caused by a wire drum's changing diameter, leading to inappropriate traveling characteristics of the carriage. In order to overcome this problem, PID Control was used to control the motor speed. Methods: Ziegler-Nichols method was used to determine PID gains. Results: The initial PID gains were 1.8, 0.025, and 0.006, respectively, and optimal gains of 1.4 and 0.010 for P and I gain were obtained experimentally. Conclusions: The results showed that constant wire tension could be maintained by controlling the speed of the motor using PI control. Overshoot occurred at initial motor operation due to vibration and elasticity of the wire itself.