General Introduction on nuclear fusion (reading is strongly advised!)
Piezoelectric walking drives are used in the DTT ECRH launcher to drive the steering mirror. These systems include a set of piezoelectric stack actuators that produce a walking motion on a slider, thus moving it longitudinally. The actuators are currently controlled by a proprietary board. However, it is necessary to develop a custom control algorithm to optimize the dynamic performance of the drive. The first part of this activity involves reproducing the reference signals generated by the proprietary control unit, in order to interface with and test the actuator system independently. The second part focuses on the development of new waveforms for increased dynamic performance, and of a closed-loop position control algorithm, based on position feedback from an absolute encoder.
Contacts: Daniele Busi
