Identification and compensation of friction for a novel two-axis differential micro-feed system

•A novel two-axis differential micro-feed system (TDMS) is proposed.•A certain ultra low velocity of the table can be obtained in TDMS.•TDMS is effective in reducing the nonlinear friction disturbance of ball screw.•A novel all-component friction parameter identification method (ACFPIM) is proposed.•The ACFPIM can identify independently the friction parameters of all components. Non-linear friction in a conventional drive feed system (CDFS) feeding at low speed is one of the main factors that lead to the complexity of the feed drive. The CDFS will inevitably enter or approach a non-linear creeping work area at extremely low speed. A novel two-axis differential micro-feed system (TDMS) is developed in this paper to overcome the accuracy limitation of CDFS. A dynamic model of TDMS is first established. Then, a novel all-component friction parameter identification method (ACFPIM) using a genetic algorithm (GA) to identify the friction parameters of a TDMS is introduced. The friction parameters of the ball screw and linear motion guides are identified independently using the method, assuring the accurate modelling of friction force at all components. A proportional-derivate feed drive position controller with an observer-based friction compensator is implemented to achieve an accurate trajectory tracking performance. Finally, comparative experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the TDMS in inhibiting the disadvantageous influence of non-linear friction and the validity of the proposed identification method for TDMS.