Scanning actuator guidance scheme in a 1-D thermal manufacturing process

In this paper, a theoretical scheme for the actuator guidance in thermal materials processing is proposed and verified experimentally. The problem under consideration involves heat distribution on a metallic strip with a moving heat source. The control objective is to optimally move the heat source in order to maintain the uniform-in-space temperature field, which is directly connected to specific material properties. The optimal position and signal intensity (control signal) of the heat source at successive time periods is determined by minimization with-respect-to-location of quadratic performance indexes corresponding to preselected actuator locations. For the experimental verification of the theoretical scheme the optimal closed-loop control algorithm is implemented on a plasma-arc welding station using real-time feedback. Experimental and simulations results are presented and analyzed.