Incremental Model Predictive Control during the Speed-up Phase in Roll-to-Roll Process

During the acceleration process from low speed to high speed in roll-to-roll (R2R) printing production, there exists a problem of register errors caused by tension flucuations of the printing web. To improve printing accuracy and reduce waste generated during the acceleration process, we establish a mathematical model for the acceleration phase by analyzing the mathematical model of the steady-speed phase and the system characteristics of the acceleration phase, and regarding the register errors induced by acceleration as external disturbances to the system. Then, combined with the information on disturbance variations contained in real-time measured values, an incremental model predictive control (MPC) method is proposed. Experimental results demonstrate that compared to existing methods such as fully decoupled proportional-derivative (FDPD) control and disturbance observer-based compensation proportional-derivative (DOCPD) control, the MPC approach exhibits advantages in control effectiveness and performance.