Evaluation of Model-Based Design Using Rapid Control Prototyping on Forklifts

Abstract: The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate Rapid Control Prototyping which is apart of the Model-Based Design concept that makes it possible to convenientlytest prototype control algorithms directly on the real system. The evaluation ishere done by designing two different controllers, a gain-scheduled P controllerand a linear Model Predictive Controller (mpc), for the lowering of the forks of aforklift.The two controllers are first tested in a simulation environment. The thesis con-tains two different simulation models: one physical where only minor parameteradjustments are done and one estimated black-box model. After evaluating thecontrollers in a simulation environment they are tested on a real forklift with areal-time target machine.The designed controllers have different strengths and weaknesses as one is non-linear and single variable, the P controller, and the other linear and multivariable,thempc. The P controller has a smooth movement in all situations without be-ing slow, unlike thempc. The disadvantage of the P controller compared to thempcis that there is no guarantee that the P controller will keep the speed limit,whereas thempcapproach gives such a guarantee.The better performance of the P controller outweighs the speed limit guaranteeand thus a conclusion is drawn that the nonlinearities of the system has a largereffect than the multivariable aspect. Also, another conclusion drawn is that work-ing with Model-Based Design and Rapid Control Prototyping makes it possibleto test many different ideas on a real forklift without spending a lot of time onimplementation.