Linear motion of low cost electric actuator with PID controller

A low cost linear electric actuator with the well-established PID controller has been controlled in this research work. Digital pulses from the Hall Effect sensor feedback mechanism of the electric actuator is utilized by the PID controller to track the displacement of the Actuator-piston towards the target position. Real-time experiments carried out in LABVIEW interfaced with Arduino-UNO with steady state response as step motions to get responses which are useful in modern industrial automation. The precise control of responses have been demonstrated in this work by a number of real-time experiments with different amplitudes as 76 mm, 100 mm, 120 mm, 152 mm of extension and retraction motion of step responses. The sinusoidal motion with different amplitude and frequencies also have been studied. The step and sinusoidal responses have different types of industrial applications like for lifting, leaning, positioning etc. Controlled Linear Electric Actuator can replace the use of expensive electrohydraulic actuators with costly hydraulic power pack and valves in parallel manipulator for low payload manufacturing applications. The control parameters as IAE (Integral Absolute Error), ITAE (Integral Time Absolute Error) and CE (Control Effort) for each responses have been observed to study the effectiveness of the controller.