Understanding Feed Forward Controllers for Active Steering Systems

[Jones1987]

Hi,

I'm trying to design a control system for an active steering system. I have the feedback loops setup fine, and the PID controller. I'm not sure how to get my reference model to work, but I'm thinking I might need a feed forward controller, however I can't seem to find any good material that fully explains what this is to me.

Anyone mind helping?

Thanks

 

[S_Happens]

Feed forward is simply going to be a way to tell the controller to go ahead and make an action instead of waiting for the measurment in the PID controller to change.

I work in a process unit which has lots of distillation. A typical feed forward variable which is integrated into a controller (more complicated than a simple PID) would be something like the feed rate to a tower. As feed increases, there are things that will have to happen, such as adding heat. The tower can add heat as soon as it starts to see feed increase in the piping upstread of the tower, instead of waiting for the actual trap temperatures to drop. This means much more stable tower operation, which is good for production in a number of ways.

Basically it's going to be a way to bias a controller for something before it actually "happens." I'm not sure how that will apply to your active steering. If you can be more specific, than maybe I can as well.