Application of MIMO Data Driven Feedback Control Design to Dual Stage Hard Disk Drives

Abstract

Abstract With increasing data density on hard disk drives, there is need to develop more robust and better performing track following control systems. We present a multi-input multi-output (MIMO) data driven feedback control design methodology. The design considers multiple frequency response measurements of all actuators, simultaneously, ensuring robustness of the control design system. A mixed H2 – H∞ norm locally convex optimization algorithm is used to synthesize the feedback controllers for MIMO systems. Feedback controllers are developed for dual stage hard disk drives using the MIMO data driven control design technique. A dual stage hard disk drive comprises of two actuators in series, controlling a read/write head onto a rotating disk. Our objective is to stabilize the closed loop of the actuators and minimize the error position signal of the read/write head. H2 norm and H∞ norm control objectives are used to formulate the MIMO data driven control problem. The design is based on a set of five frequency response measurements of the two actuators. We also compare the MIMO design methodology to a single-input multi-output (SIMO) design methodology presented earlier [1].