Experimental verification of an actuator guidance scheme for a 1-D thermal manufacturing processing

In this study we verify experimentally a theoretical scheme for actuator guidance in thermal manufacturing processing. The problem under consideration involves heat distribution on a metallic strip with a moving heat source. The control objective is to optimally move the heat source in order to maintain the uniform-in-space temperature field, which is directly connected to specific material properties. The optimal position and signal intensity (control signal) of the heat source at successive time periods is determined by minimization with-respect-to-location of quadratic performance indices corresponding to preselected actuator locations.