Selective precision motion control using weighted sensor fusion approach

With the continued increasing demand for high precision in robotics and automation, the accuracy of the position measurement is fundamental and critically important to achieve high precision control performance. Given common conflicting interests in cost versus performance considerations, or even among different performance measures arising in the same application, the need for an effective balance among these issues can arise to motivate the use of multiple sensors for the same measurement. Examples of such scenarios will be highlighted in the paper and an approach towards precision motion control with a selective fusion of multiple signal candidates is furnished. A specific application towards precision motion control of a linear motor using a magnetic encoder and a soft position sensor in conjunction with an analog velocity sensor is demonstrated.