Method and a system for evaluation of static friction

1. A method for evaluation whether oscillations in a control process depend on static friction in an actuator, comprising:

measuring the signal from the actuator or the signal from the process;

deriving the measured signal at least once;

calculating a first mapping of the derived signal;

calculating a second mapping representing an output signal at static friction;

calculating a third mapping representing an output signal without static friction;

comparing the first mapping with the second mapping and the third mapping

signal processing the measured signal for the purpose of detecting whether the measured signal comprises abrupt inclination changes; and

deciding based on the derived signal whether there is static friction in the actuator based on whether the signal comprises abrupt inclination changes in dependence of the comparison.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the third mapping represents an output signal oscillating essentially sinusoidally.

3. A method for evaluation whether oscillations in a control process depend on static friction in an actuator, comprising:

measuring the signal from the actuator or the signal from the process;

calculating a frequency of the measured signal;

filtering the measured signal with a filter having a filter bandwidth in an interval 2–4 times the calculated frequency;

signal processing the measured signal for the purpose of detecting whether the measured signal comprises abrupt inclination changes; and

deciding whether there is static friction in the actuator based on whether the signal comprises abrupt inclination changes.

4. A method for evaluation whether oscillations in a control process depend on static friction in an actuator, comprising:

measuring the signal from the actuator or the signal from the process;

deriving the measured signal at least once;

calculating a first probability distribution for the derived measured signal;

calculating a second probability distribution representing an output signal at static friction;

calculating a third probability distribution representing an output signal oscillating for a reason other than static friction;

comparing the first probability distribution with the second probability distribution and the third probability distribution;

signal processing the measured signal for the purpose of detecting whether the measured signal comprises abrupt inclination changes; and

deciding based on the comparison of the probability distributions whether there is static friction in the actuator based on whether the signal comprises abrupt inclination changes.

5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the second probability distribution has a maximum and in that the third probability distribution has two maxima.

6. The method according to claim 4 , wherein, before the comparison, an adaption of the second and the third probability distribution to the calculated probability distribution of the derived signal is performed.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein said adaption is performed by estimating, for each of the second and third probability distribution, the standard deviation rendering the best adaption to the probability distribution for the derived signal.

8. The method according to claim 7 , wherein the amplitude for the oscillations in the measured signal is estimated and the standard deviation for the third probability distribution shall be less than 40% of the amplitude.

9. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the second probability distribution represents an output signal mainly comprising white noise and the probability distribution has an essentially gaussian shape.

10. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the third probability distribution represents an output signal comprising a sinusoidal signal and white noise.

11. The method according to claim 4 , wherein said comparison is performed by calculating a first value corresponding to the difference between the first and the second probability distribution, and a second value corresponding to the difference between the first and the third probability distribution, and comparing the first and the second value with each other, and if the values differ with more than 10% and the first value is less than the second value, there is static friction.

12. A system for evaluation whether oscillations in a control process depend on static friction in an actuator, comprising:

a measuring device for measuring the signal from the actuator or the signal from the process;

a signal processing means that decides whether the measured signal comprises abrupt inclination changes;

a derivation means for determining the first and the second derivative of the measured signal;

a calculation member which, based on the derivative of the measured signal, calculates one or several values which depend on whether there is static friction in the actuator, wherein the calculation member is adapted for calculating a first mapping of the derived signal and for comparing the first mapping with a second mapping representing an output signal at static friction, and a third mapping representing an output signal without static friction and calculating the values based on the comparison.

13. The system according to claim 12 , wherein the mappings comprise probability distributions and wherein the third mapping represents an output signal oscillating essentially sinusoidally.

14. A system for evaluation whether oscillations in a control process depend on static friction in an actuator, comprising:

a measuring device for measuring the signal from the actuator or the signal from the process;

a signal processing means that decides whether the measured signal comprises abrupt inclination changes; and

a filter operative to filter the measured signal, wherein the filter has a filter bandwidth in the interval 2–4 times the frequency of the measured signal.

15. A computer program product loadable into the internal memory of a computer, comprising:

software code portions for performing the following steps when they are run on a computer:

receiving measuring data from a control process comprising an actuator, which measuring data either correspond to measured values of the signals from the actuator or measured values for the signal from the process

deriving the measured signal at least once,

signal processing the measured signal for the purpose of determining whether the measured signal comprises abrupt inclination changes,

calculating a first mapping of the derived measured signal,

calculating a second mapping representing an output signal at static friction,

calculating a third mapping representing an output signal without static friction,

comparing the first mapping with the second mapping, and the third mapping, and

calculating based upon the comparison at least one at least one valued depending upon whether there is static friction in the actuator based upon the derivative of the measured signal.

16. The computer program product according to claim 15 , wherein the first mapping and the second mapping comprise probability distributions and the third mapping represents an output signal oscillating essentially sinusoidally.