C. Compensator Design

Now that we have addressed the nonlinear dynamics of the motion plant, let's tackle the other half of the compensator, the observer which reads the payload position and uses it to estimate the motion plant's state. The observer is structured as a Kalman filter. In the subsequent web pages, I will give a very brief explanation of how a discrete-time Kalman filter works. The full-state feedback (FSFB) control law uses the estimated state to calculate the desired net input force to exert on the payload. The FSFB control law and Kalman filter can be designed separately due to the Separation Principle.