FLOreS - Fractional order loop shaping MATLAB toolbox

TL;DR

FLOreS is a MATLAB toolbox that simplifies the design of fractional order controllers using loop shaping techniques, integrating frequency response data and providing educational and industry applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel graphical toolbox for fractional order controller design that leverages industry standard loop shaping and includes approximation methods for implementation.

Findings

Successfully designed fractional order controllers for precision stages.

Provides a user-friendly graphical interface for control design.

Validated industry readiness through practical implementation.

Abstract

A novel toolbox named FLOreS is presented for intuitive design of fractional order controllers (FOC) using industry standard loop shaping technique. This will allow control engineers to use frequency response data (FRD) of the plant to design FOCs by shaping the open loop to meet the necessary specifications of stability, robustness, tracking, precision and bandwidth. FLOreS provides a graphical approach using closed-loop sensitivity functions for overall insight into system performance. The main advantage over existing optimization toolboxes for FOC is that the engineer can use prior knowledge and expertise of plant during design of FOC. Different approximation methods for fractional order filters are also included for greater freedom of final implementation. This combined with the included example plants enables additionally to be used as an educational tool. FLOreS has been used for design and implementation of both integer and fractional order controllers on a precision stage to prove industry readiness.