A Benchmark on Hybrid Control of a Mechanical System with Backlash

Control of mechanical systems with backlash is a topic well studied by many control practitioners. This interest has been motivated by the fact that backlash in mechanical systems can cause severe performance degradation and lead to instabil- ity of the control system. Furthermore, high impact-forces in backlash-systems can lead to a lower durability of the components and to strokes and peaks in the output. This motivates an investigation of the usability of hybrid control synthesis for this problem. A mechanical system has been constructed to provide experimental facil- ities for testing identification and control of systems with backlash. This document describes a benchmark proposal for the laboratory system. To demonstrate control of backlash systems, a hybrid (PWA) model of the system is derived and used in a hybrid Model Predictive Control (MPC) scheme.