Modelling and Simulation of 2 DOF Gimbal System with Experimental System Identification

During the past decade, control engineers spent more effort making an interface between the practical applications and the theoretical models. System identification includes methods going from observed data to an accurate mathematical model. A precise mathematical model of the system assists engineers in designing high-performance model-based controllers. In this study, we obtained a detailed mathematical model of a conventional two-axis gimbal system considering the coupling effects of the gimbal axes. Then, we comprehensively compared the experimental data and the simulation results. We constructed the simulation model in MATLAB Simscape Multibody environment. We performed our analysis in both the time domain and frequency domain. The results show that an accurate model can be obtained considering the nonlinear effects of the system.