Adaptive web-tension control using a dancer arm

This paper proposes an adaptive web-tension controller that uses dancer arm position and take-up roller velocity sensors and a supply-roller torque actuator. The controller learns and cancels the effects of dancer arm weight, supply-roller friction, upstream tension, and dancer-arm and supply-roller inertia. Experimental results show reduction in the dancer arm angular error and tension variation by up to 500% and 300% respectively, relative to PID (proportionnal, integral, derivative) control. Application : this research introduces an adaptive web-tension controller for dancer arm systems. The controller learns the system characteristics to regulate tension better than traditional PID control.