Precision positioning of a three-axis optical pickup via a double phase-lead compensator equipped with auto-tuned parameters

The objective of this study is to design an intelligent control servo scheme for the three-axis optical pickups employed in the next-generation optical disc drives. The three-axis pickup owns the capability to move the lens holder in three directions of focusing, tracking and tilting, which is required particularly for higher data-density optical disks and precision measuring instruments to annihilate non-zero lens tilting. The intelligent controller utilizes a commercially often-used double phase-lead compensator equipped with the capability of auto-tuning on control parameters. In this way, the model uncertainty of the pickups caused by manufacturing tolerance and the coupling between three different DOFs of the three-axis pickup can be overcome to render desired precision data-reading. In the initial stage of the study, Lagrange’s equations are employed to derive equations of motion for the lens holder. A double-lead controller equipped with a fuzzy logic parameter tuning algorithm is then designed to perform dynamic decoupling and forge control efforts toward the goals of precision tracking, focusing and zero tilting simultaneously. Along with the controller, a genetic algorithm is developed to search the optimal designed parameters of previously designed auto-tuning algorithm. Finally, the experiments are conducted to show the effectiveness of the controller. With validated performance, the designed intelligent controller is ready to be employed for the next-generation optical disc drives.