Inverse LuGre model for a small-scale MR damper

Piotr Palka
(student) AGH University of Science and Technology
Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Automatics, Computer
Science and Biomedical Engineering
al. A. Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Krakow, Poland
e-mail: palkapio@gmail.com
Marcin Malanka
AGH University of Science and Technology
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics
Department of Process Control
al. A. Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Krakow, Poland
e-mail: marcin.maslanka@agh.edu.pl


AbstractMagnetorheological (MR) dampers are controllable
damping devices which successfully replace viscous dampers in
most demanding vibration damping systems. In order to control
the MR damper force in real time, a feed-forward control
strategy is often used which utilizes an inverse model of the MR
damper. This paper presents the inverse model for a small-scale
MR damper formulated by an inversion of the LuGre friction
model. In the first part of the paper, the LuGre model for the
RD-1097-01 MR damper is identified based on the MR damper
force measurements under sine excitation and constant currents.
Later, an inversion of the LuGre model is proposed and the
accuracy of the inverse LuGre model is validated by simulations.
Keywordsmagnetorheological; damper; LuGre; model;
simulation.
I. INTRODUCTION
Magnetorheological (MR) dampers successfully replace
passive viscous dampers in e.g. car suspension systems, cable
damping systems in cable-stayed bridges [1] and tuned mass
damper concepts [2, 3]. In many of these applications the MR
dampers are controlled in real-time to track the desired
damping force. The force tracking task can be solved by
feedback approaches, or by model-based feed-forward
approaches. The feedback methods require force sensors that
measure the actual MR damper force. The feed-forward
approaches do not require force sensors. Instead, the inverse
model of the MR damper has to be known. The inverse model
calculates the current which is required to be applied to the MR
damper to obtain the actual MR damper force equal to the
desired force. In practice, the inverse model is required to be
not only adequate, but also as simple as possible. In the
numerical studies more complex inverse models might be
useful to accurately predict the current that is needed to obtain
a desired force characteristic with the MR damper. Good
accuracy, and still simplicity, characterizes the hyperbolic
tangent function-based inverse models, as shown e.g. in [4]. In
this study, an inverse model is investigated which is based on
the LuGre friction model.
The LuGre dynamic friction model was proposed by
Canudas de Wit et al. in 1995 [5]. This model captures
phenomena such as Stribeck effect, hysteresis, spring-like
characteristics for stiction and varying break-away force [5]
and has been considered in many research studies related to
friction.
The LuGre model describes the friction phenomena where
at the microscope level the surfaces of the objects are irregular
and therefore make contact at number of asperities. In [5], the
friction between two surfaces is considered as a contact
between bristles that cover the surfaces. If a tangential force is
applied, the bristle will deflect like a spring and give rise to a
friction force. Similar mechanism has been observed for the
MR fluid, where shear stress is generated by deflecting particle
chains [6].
In the context of MR damper modelling, the LuGre model
was first considered in 2002 [7]. In 2003 [8], the necessary
modifications in the LuGre model for MR dampers were
proposed with the purpose to give a simple model which can
create an inverse model. The modified LuGre inverse model
was obtained and numerically studied in conjunction with the
LQG control algorithm which was used to calculate the desired
damping force. In 2005 [9], an another modified LuGre model
was proposed and studied for the MR damper type RD-1005-3.
The review of all these LuGre friction models can be found in
section 8 of [10].
The next section briefly presents the LuGre model under
consideration. This model is identified in Section III for a
small-scale MR damper type RD-1097-01. Later, the new
inverse LuGre model is presented which varies from the model
proposed in [8]. Section V presents the results of simulations.
The paper is closed with summary and conclusions.

II. LUGRE MODEL
The LuGre dynamic friction model under consideration is
given by [5]:
x z z F
LuGre

2 1 0
o o o + + = (1)
where
LuGre
F is a LuGre friction force, z is an internal variable
that can be interpreted as an average deflection of the bristles
(or MR fluid particle chains), x is the relative velocity
between two interacting surfaces,
0
o is a bristles stiffness,
1
o
is a bristles damping, and
2
o is a viscous damping coefficient.
The internal variable z is given by:
This work was supported by AGH University of Science and
Technology (statutory research funds No. 11.11.130.560).
978-1-4673-4490-6/13/$31.00 2013 IEEE
z
x g
x
x z
) (
0

o
= (2)
where ) (x g is a positive function that describes the Stribeck
effect. The function ) (x g which depends on e.g. material
properties is considered in the form:

2
) (
) ( ) (
s
v x
C S C
e F F F x g

+ = (3)
where
C
F denotes the Coulomb friction force,
S
F is the
stiction force and
s
v represents the Stribeck velocity.
III. LUGRE MODEL FOR A SMALL-SCALE MR DAMPER
A. MR damper
The MR damper under consideration is a small-scale
damper type RD-1097-01 which consists of a foam saturated
with MR fluid [11]. Its structure is shown in Fig. 1. Due to
small forces of this MR damper it fits well to laboratory-scale
setups. Experimental studies that utilized the RD-1097-01 MR
damper are presented in, e.g., [4], [1216].
B. Measured MR damper force characteristics
Fig. 2 presents the RD-1097-01 MR damper force versus its
relative velocity for three currents applied to the damper. The
measurements were carried out in 2007 in a laboratory cable-
MR damper setup described in [15]. The data used in this
study for the purpose of model identification includes the MR
damper force measurements for harmonic excitation at single
frequency 2 Hz and twelve input currents I ranging from 0 to
0.55 A.


steel
tube
coil
foam saturated
with MR fluid
plastic
shaft
electrical
leads
steel
core

Figure 1. Structure of the RD-1097-01 MR damper, based on [11].

-100 -50 0 50 100
-40
-20
0
20
40
velocity (mm/s)
f
o
r
c
e
(
N
)
0.5 A
0.25 A
0 A
harmonic
excitation, 2 Hz

Figure 2. MR damper force versus velocity for three input currents [16].
C. Identified LuGre model parameters
A set of six parameters should be determined for the LuGre
model:
| |
s S C
v F F , , , , ,
2 1 0
o o o = O . (4)
The parameters (4) were identified in MATLAB

using the
Nelder-Mead multidimensional unconstrained nonlinear
minimization method (function fminsearch). The minimized
error index was considered in the form
( ) dt F F x Q
LuGre meas
T
2
0
=
}
(5)
where
meas
F is the measured MR damper force, x is the
measured relative velocity and also an input velocity in the
LuGre model, and T is a period of harmonic excitation.
Fig. 3 presents the identified and approximated relationships
between LuGre model parameters and the current I applied to
the MR damper.
Similarly as in other MR damper models [10], the most
relevant parameter of the LuGre model is the Coulomb friction
force F
C
that has a strong impact on the total force.
Consequently, the accuracy of the model strongly depends on
the function that is used to approximate the identified
relationship between Coulomb friction force and MR damper
current.

0
10
20
30
40
identified
aproximated
-600
-400
-200
0
200
400
600
0
2
4
6
8
10
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
current (A)
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
current (A)
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
current (A)
C
o
u
l
o
m
b
f
r
i
c
t
i
o
n
f
o
r
c
e
(
N
)
b
r
i
s
t
l
e
s
d
a
m
p
i
n
g
(
N
s
/
m
)
s
t
i
c
t
i
o
n
f
o
r
c
e
(
N
)
0
50
100
150
200
250
0
20
40
60
80
0
10
20
30
40
50
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
current (A)
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
current (A)
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
current (A)
S
t
r
i
b
e
c
k
v
e
l
o
c
i
t
y
(
m
m
/
s
)
v
i
s
c
o
u
s
d
a
m
p
i
n
g
c
o
e
f
f
.
(
N
s
/
m
)
b
r
i
s
t
l
e
s
s
t
i
f
f
n
e
s
s
(
k
N
/
m
)

Figure 3. LuGre model parameters for RD-1097-01 MR damper.
2013 14th International Carpathian Control Conference (ICCC) 285
TABLE I. PARAMETERS OF APROXIMATING FUNCTIONS
Parameter Value
F0 2.90 N
AC 63.234 N
B
C
-0.176 A
A 0
o
1.396 10
5
N/Am
B 0
o
8.96 10
4
N/m
A 1
o
1.127 10
3
Ns/Am
B 1
o
-289.1 N s/m
A 2
o
99.52 N s/Am
B 2
o
14.55 N s/m
FSA 13.8 N/A
FSB 0.6466 N
v
sA
-0.0164 m/sA
v
sB
0.0281 m/s

In this study, the Coulomb friction force is approximated by
the modified Langevin function, similarly as in [6]:

=
9 e
|
|
.
|

\
|
+
=
0 :
} 0 { \ : ) coth(
) (
0
2
0
I F
I
I
B
B
I
A F
I F
C
C
C
C
(6)
where F
0
is a residual Coulomb friction force at I= 0 A and
C
A ,
C
B are constants.
The remaining model parameters, the bristles stiffness
0
o , the
bristles damping
1
o , the viscous damping coefficient
2
o , the
stiction force F
S
, and the Stribeck velocity v
s
, are identified to
be related to the input current I as follows:

B A B A
I I I I
1 1 1 0 0 0
) ( , ) ( o o o o o o + = + = (7), (8)

SB SA S B A
F I F I F I I + = + = ) ( , ) (
2 2 2
o o o (9), (10)

sB sA s
v I v I v + = ) ( . (11)
The parameters of approximating functions (6)(11) are listed
in Tab. 1.
IV. INVERSE LUGRE MODEL
Since the Coulomb friction force F
C
has been recognized as
the most relevant parameter of the LuGre model, the task was
to formulate the LuGre inverse model that is able to fully
capture the nonlinear relationship between Coulomb friction
force and current (6). This task was solved by using the
previous value of current in the inverse model formulation. The
calculation procedure for the inverse model output current I
des
is as follows [17]:
- The Coulomb friction force is predicted from (6) using
the previous value of current
1 i
des
I . If
1 i
des
I = 0 then
C
F =
0
F .
- The value of function (3) is calculated based on the
actual velocity x and ) (
1 i
des C
I F .
- Internal variable z is calculated by solving (2) for the
actual velocity x and ) , (
1 i
des
I x g .
- Taking into account (7)(11), the actual current is
calculated as:

x I z I z
x I z I z F
I
A
i
des A
i
des A
B
i
des B
i
des B des i
des


2
1
1
1
0
2
1
1
1
0
) ( ) (
) ( ) (
o o o
o o o
+ +

=


(12)
The inverse model (12) calculates the current I
des
that is
desired to be applied to the MR damper in order to obtain the
actual MR damper force equal to the desired force F
des
.
The advantage of the proposed inverse model is that the
Coulomb friction force F
C
can be expressed in it by any
mathematical function. The remaining model parameters are
assumed to be linearly related to current.
V. NUMERICAL VALIDATION
The accuracy of the proposed inverse model was validated
by numerical simulations. The simulation model (Fig. 4)
consists of the LuGre model as identified in Section III and the
inverse LuGre model (12) with the same parameters. The
simulations were run in MATLAB

/Simulink with ode5

(Dormand-Prince) solver and fixed time step size of 1 ms.
The desired force is considered as a pure viscous damping
force:
x c F
des des
= (13)
where c
des
is a desired viscous damping coefficient.
Fig. 5 presents the selected results of simulations for
c
des
= 500 Ns/m and sinusoidal displacement x with frequency
1 Hz and amplitude 10 mm.
cdes
relative velocity
relative displacement
disp
vel
fdes
desired force
LuGre
inverse
model
Ides
LuGre
model
disp
vel
I
fact
actual force
fact = fdes?

Figure 4. Simulation model.
2013 14th International Carpathian Control Conference (ICCC) 286
The actual MR damper force in Fig. 5a tracks well the desired
viscous damping force. Small differences between the desired
force and the actual MR damper force are visible only for
forces around zero. However, the MR damper current
calculated with the proposed inverse LuGre model (Fig. 5b)
shows sharp spikes each time when the desired force changes
its sign, and this effect is recognized as a drawback of the
proposed inverse model. The current spikes are stronger for
smaller desired viscous damping coefficients and in some cases
may cause numerical troubles.
VI. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
The paper presents the inverse LuGre model for a small-
scale MR damper type RD-1097-01. The inverse model is
formulated based on the observation that five out of six
identified LuGre model parameters are linearly related to
current. The most important parameter of the model is the
Coulomb friction force. In order to capture the nonlinear
relationship between the Coulomb friction force and current,
the inverse model is calculated in a recursive way. The
Coulomb friction force is predicted based on the value of
current from the previous step. Then, the internal variable z and
the output current of the inverse LuGre model are calculated.
The advantage of the proposed inverse model is that the
Coulomb friction force F
c
of the LuGre model can be
expressed by any mathematical function. The disadvantage is
that the recursive method leads to the sharp current spikes
observed while the desired force changes its sign. This effect
needs further investigations to be solved.

a
b
1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
time (s)
c
u
r
r
e
n
t
(
A
)
1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
-40
-20
0
20
40
time (s)
f
o
r
c
e
(
N
)
desired
actual

Figure 5. Simulation results - tracking of a viscous damping force with an
MR damper: desired and actual MR damper force (a), MR damper current
calculated with the proposed inverse LuGre model (b).
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by AGH University of Science
and Technology, Department of Process Control, Krakow,
Poland (statutory research funds No. 11.11.130.560).
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2013 14th International Carpathian Control Conference (ICCC) 287