TY - GEN
T1 - Model-free fuzzy tightening control for bolt/nut joint connections of wind turbine hubs
AU - Deters, C.
AU - Secco, E. L.
AU - Wuerdemann, H. A.
AU - Lam, H. K.
AU - Seneviratne, Lakmal D.
AU - Althoefer, K.
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - In the wind turbine manufacturing industry, the bolt-nut joint tightening process is one of the core processes in the full production chain and concerned with assembling the hub body, the pitch system and the bearing unit. This operation is currently executed manually with the aid of different tools and gauges; the main disadvantages are a relatively high degree of variability and the necessity to repeat this task several times during a production run to achieve a satisfactory, final tightening torque within a specified angle range. Moreover, the bolt tightening process includes various uncertainties such as the presence of friction forces and the use of different bolt sizes with different stiffness values which make it highly nonlinear and uncertain resulting in a challenging control problem. To facilitate the development of an effective control strategy, we study the bolt tightening process and propose 4 tightening stages, namely, bolt-nut alignment, partial and full engagement and final bolt tightening. Based on the characteristics of each stage, a fuzzy controller is designed for each stage to realize the respective control objectives. A fuzzy error detector incorporating the knowledge of each stage is proposed for early error detection, making use of the input from a torque and encoder (angular position) sensor. Errors can be detected in each stage to interrupt the process and prevent any damage to the system.
AB - In the wind turbine manufacturing industry, the bolt-nut joint tightening process is one of the core processes in the full production chain and concerned with assembling the hub body, the pitch system and the bearing unit. This operation is currently executed manually with the aid of different tools and gauges; the main disadvantages are a relatively high degree of variability and the necessity to repeat this task several times during a production run to achieve a satisfactory, final tightening torque within a specified angle range. Moreover, the bolt tightening process includes various uncertainties such as the presence of friction forces and the use of different bolt sizes with different stiffness values which make it highly nonlinear and uncertain resulting in a challenging control problem. To facilitate the development of an effective control strategy, we study the bolt tightening process and propose 4 tightening stages, namely, bolt-nut alignment, partial and full engagement and final bolt tightening. Based on the characteristics of each stage, a fuzzy controller is designed for each stage to realize the respective control objectives. A fuzzy error detector incorporating the knowledge of each stage is proposed for early error detection, making use of the input from a torque and encoder (angular position) sensor. Errors can be detected in each stage to interrupt the process and prevent any damage to the system.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/84887269558
U2 - 10.1109/ICRA.2013.6630587
DO - 10.1109/ICRA.2013.6630587
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84887269558
SN - 9781467356411
T3 - Proceedings - IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation
SP - 270
EP - 276
BT - 2013 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2013
T2 - 2013 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2013
Y2 - 6 May 2013 through 10 May 2013
ER -
