Impedance control of an active suspension system

A novel control system is developed to control dynamic behavior of a vehicle subject to road disturbances. The novelty of this paper is to apply the impedance control on an active vehicle suspension system operated by a hydraulic actuator. A relation between the passenger comfort and vehicle handling is derived using the impedance parameters. The impedance control law is simple, free of model and can be applied for a broad range of road conditions including a flat road. Impedance control is achieved through two interior loops which are force control of the actuator by feedback linearization and fuzzy control loop to track a desired body displacement provided by the impedance rule. The system stability is analyzed. A quarter-car model of suspension system and a nonlinear model of hydraulic actuator are used to simulate the control system.     

Automobile Brake-by-Wire Control System Design and Analysis

The automobile brake-by-wire (BBW) system, which is also called the electromechanical brake system, has become a promising vehicle braking control scheme that enables many new driver interfaces and enhanced performances without a mechanical or hydraulic backup. In this paper, we survey BBW control systems with focuses on fault tolerance design and vehicle braking control schemes. At first, the system architecture of BBW systems is described. Fault tolerance design is then discussed to meet the high requirements of reliability and safety of BBW systems. A widely used braking model and several braking control schemes are investigated. Although previous work focused on antilock and antislip braking controls on a single wheel basis, we present a whole-vehicle control scheme to enhance vehicle stability and safety. Simulations based on the whole-vehicle braking model validate a proposed fuzzy logic control scheme in the lateral and yaw stability controls of vehicles.     

A performance evaluation of an automotive magnetorheological brake design with a sliding mode controller

The aim of this work is to develop a magnetorheological brake (MRB) system that has performance advantages over the conventional hydraulic brake system. The proposed brake system consists of rotating disks immersed in a MR fluid and enclosed in an electromagnet, which the yield stress of the fluid varies as a function of the magnetic field applied by the electromagnet. The controllable yield stress causes friction on the rotating disk surfaces, thus generating a retarding brake torque. The braking torque can be precisely controlled by changing the current applied to the electromagnet. In this paper, an optimum MRB design with two rotating disks is proposed based on a design optimization procedure using simulated annealing combined with finite element simulations involving magnetostatic, fluid flow and heat transfer analysis. The performance of the MRB in a vehicle was studied using a quarter vehicle model. A sliding mode controller was designed for an optimal wheel slip control, and the control simulation results show fast anti-lock braking.     

Optimal robust control of a contactless brake system using an eddy current

As vehicle speed increases, a more powerful brake system is required to ensure vehicle safety and its reliability. A contactless eddy current brake (ECB) is developed to take the superior advantages of fast anti-lock braking to the conventional hydraulic brake systems. Braking torque analysis is performed by using an approximate theoretical model and the model is modified through experiments to have a more reliable result. Designs of an ECB for a scaled model for demonstration and actual vehicle model are performed. Optimal torque control which minimizes a braking distance is achieved by maintaining a desired slip ratio corresponding to the road condition. Optimal controller which is robust to the varying road friction coefficients is designed by using a sliding mode controller. Simulation and experimental results for a scaled model are presented to investigate the performance of a contactless ECB.     

Safety brake performance evaluation and optimization of hydraulic lifting systems in case of overspeed dropping

Safety is the most important issue for mobile and industrial machinery, and overspeed dropping of lifting actuators is extremely hazardous to the equipment, environment and operators. In this paper, to evaluate and improve the safety brake performance of hydraulic lifting systems in this emergent case, a multi-objective optimization model was proposed. Considering the load impacts in the braking process, a novel indicator named remaining vibration energy was defined to simply quantify the cushion performance. A mathematical and simulation model was established, and then the simulation model was verified by experimental tests. Minimization of the remaining vibration energy, the brake distance and the pressure loss of the hydraulic fuse on normal working conditions were considered as optimization objectives after analysis of the system dynamic behavior. The optimization model using a genetic algorithm was applied to a heavy hydraulic elevator system. The results indicated that the pressure impact was reduced, and the plunger stopped more smoothly in the optimized system. Also the brake distance and the pressure loss of the fuse are limited by the design criterion. Therefore, this paper presents an optimization method of hydraulic fuses to design safer hydraulic lifting systems.     

An Antilock-Braking Algorithm for an Eddy-Current-Based Brake-By-Wire System

This paper presents a nonlinear sliding-mode-type controller for slip regulation in a braking event for an electromagnetic brake-by-wire (BBW)-system-equipped automobile. The electromagnetic BBW system under consideration consists of a set of eddy current brakes (ECBs) attached to the automobile wheels. The antilock-braking controller modifies the brake torque command generated by a supervisory controller which, in turn, is based on the driver's command sensed via brake pedal sensors. The modified brake torque command is then generated by a closed-loop actuator control algorithm to control the ECB system. It is shown in this paper that the proposed antilock-braking control system is stable in the sense of Lyapunov. Experimental results are presented for a test vehicle equipped with an eddy-current-based BBW system. Experimental results show that the proposed antilock brake control algorithm provides very good slip regulation in a braking event on low friction-coefficient surfaces (wet jennite) when compared with that of a braking event without the proposed antilock-braking control. Experimental results also indicate that the proposed antilock-braking control system provides a smooth stop for the vehicle     

Parametric fault diagnosis for electrohydraulic cylinder driveunits

A novel model-based methodology for fault diagnosis (FD) of nonlinear hydraulic drive systems is presented in this paper. Due to its linear dependence upon parameters, a second-truncated Volterra nonlinear model is first used to characterize such systems. The versatile order-recursive estimation scheme is employed to determine the values of parameters in the Volterra model. The scheme also avoids separate determination of the model order; thus, the complexity of the search process is reduced. Next, it is shown that the estimated parameters, representing different states of the system, normal as well as faulty conditions, can be used to detect and isolate system faults in a geometric domain. Very promising results are exhibited via simulations as well as laboratory experiments. It is concluded that the developed parametric FD technique has potential to provide efficient condition monitoring and/or preventive maintenance in hydraulic actuator circuits     

H<Subscript>∞</Subscript> control of multiple model subject to actuator saturation: application to quarter-car suspension system

This paper deals with the H_∞ control of nonlinear systems in multiple model representation subject to actuator saturation. An application to Quarter-Car suspension system under actuator saturation is then given using the multiple model approach. The concept of so-called parallel distributed compensation (PDC) is employed for designing control system. The idea of this controller consists in designing a linear feedback control for each local linear model. To address the input saturation problem in this paper, both constrained and saturated controls input cases are proposed. In the two cases, H_∞ stabilization conditions in the sense of Lyapunov method are derived. Moreover, a controller design with larger attraction domain is formulated and solved as a linear matrix inequality (LMI) optimization problem. Our simulation results show that both the saturated and constrained controls can stabilize the resulting closed-loop suspension system and eliminate the effect of external disturbances. Indeed, the main roles of car suspension systems, which consist on improving ride comfort of passengers and the road holding capacity of the vehicle, are achieved.     

Reliable $$H_{\infty }$$ Stabilization of Fuzzy Systems with Random Delay Via Nonlinear Retarded Control

In this paper, the robust reliable \(H_\infty \) control problem has been investigated for a class of nonlinear discrete-time TS fuzzy systems with random delay. In particular, the proposed fuzzy system consists of local nonlinear models with set of fuzzy rules, but the conventional TS fuzzy systems has local linear models. Our attention is focused on the design of a feedback reliable nonlinear retarded control law to ensure the robust asymptotic stability for nonlinear discrete-time TS fuzzy system with admissible uncertainties as well as actuator failure cases and random delay. In particular, by using an input delay approach, the random delay with stochastic parameters in the system matrices is introduced in the system model. Based on the Lyapunov approach, firstly, a sufficient condition for asymptotic stability is proposed for TS fuzzy systems in the presence of actuator failures. Then, a robust reliable \(H_\infty \) control is designed for the uncertain TS fuzzy system by solving a strict linear matrix inequalities using the available numerical software. Finally, a numerical example based on real-time ball and beam system is provided to validate the effectiveness of the proposed design technique.     

Fuzzy control for active suspensions

A methodology for the design of active car suspension systems is presented. The goal is to minimize vertical car body acceleration, for passenger comfort, and to avoid hitting suspension limits, for component lifetime preservation. A controller consisting of two control loops is proposed to attain this goal. The inner loop controls a nonlinear hydraulic actuator to achieve tracking of a desired actuation force. The outer loop implements a fuzzy logic controller which interpolates linear locally optimal controllers to provide the desired actuation force. Final controller parameters are computed via genetic algorithm-based optimization. A numerical example illustrates the design methodology.     

Robust control of positioning systems with a multi-step bang-bang actuator

A nonlinear control scheme for preventing the limit cycle due to the nonlinearity of the multi-step bang-bang actuator in mechanical position control systems is proposed. A linearized model, sinusoidal input describing function (SIDF), for a multi-step bang-bang actuator is introduced to compensate the nonlinearity of the multi-step bang-bang actuator. Using that model, an H_∞ robust controller for position control systems with a bang-bang actuator is proposed by loop shaping techniques with normalized coprime factorization stabilization to address the robustness. The proposed scheme requires a smaller deadband as a result of compensating the nonlinearity of the bang-bang actuator. A single-axis servo system is implemented in order to verify the proposed control scheme experimentally. Experimental results show that the controller can satisfy the special interest, silent contact switching of the actuator.     

Cooperative communication for safety message dissemination in unsaturated networks with varying contention windows

Safety message dissemination is crucial in vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) for road safety applications. Vehicles regularly transmit safety messages to surrounding vehicles to prevent road accidents. However, changing vehicle mobility and density can cause unstable network conditions in VANETs, making it inappropriate to use a fixed contention window (CW) for different network densities. It has been proposed a 1-D Markov model under unsaturation conditions to analyze the performance of the system with varying CWs under changing vehicle densities. Additionally, it introduces the use of cooperative communication (CoC) to relay failed safety messages. In CoC, two control packets, namely, negative acknowledge (NACK) and enable to cooperate (ETC), are utilized. The proposed analytical model named cooperative communication for safety message dissemination (CoC-SMD) is used to calculate throughput and average packet delay for varying CW and different packet size. The simulation confirms the validity of the analytical results and show significant improvement in the metrics through the use of varying CW sizes and CoC compared with existing techniques.     

Automatisierungstechnik in der Mechatronik — zwei Beispiele aus der Stahlindustrie

Mechatronics, once started as a scientific and industrial experiment, has shown to be a well established scientific discipline with a broad industrial area of applications. Unchanged is the claim of Mechatronics to create a scientific discipline, which offers a new approach to industrial and scientific problems by a synergetic integration of electrical and mechanical engineering with control. Two examples from the field of steel manufacturing systems, namely a hydraulic actuator and a bridle roll device, are chosen in order to demonstrate how one can improve the system performance by linear and nonlinear control. The theory of PCH-systems (port controlled Hamiltonian systems) is used in the nonlinear case, and a combination of partial input-output decoupling and H₂-design is applied to the linear plant. The measurements of the hydraulic actuator and the simulations of the bridle roll system demonstrate the performance of the closed loop. Of course, the presented controllers can easily be used for similar plants. Furthermore, the presented ideas are transferable to similar or related problems in a straightforward manner.     

Investigation of Sliding-Surface Design on the Performance of Sliding Mode Controller in Antilock Braking Systems

Sliding mode control (SMC) has widely been employed in the development of a wheel-slip controller because of its effectiveness in applications for nonlinear systems as well as its performance robustness on parametric and modeling uncertainties. The design of a sliding surface strongly influences the overall behavior of the SMC system due to the discontinuous switching of control force in the vicinity of a sliding surface that produces chattering. This paper investigates the effects of sliding-surface design on the performance of an SMC-based antilock braking system (ABS), including a brake-torque limitation, an actuator time delay, and a tire-force buildup. Different sliding-surface designs commonly used in ABS were compared, and an alternative sliding-surface design that improves convergence speed and oscillation damping around the target slip has been proposed. An 8-degree-of-freedom (dof) nonlinear vehicle model was developed for this paper, and the effects of brake-system parameter variations, such as a brake actuator time constant, target slip ratios, an abrupt road friction change, and road friction noises, were also assessed.     

An efficient method for nonlinear distortion calculation of the AM and PM noise spectra of FMCW radar transmitters

The demand for autonomous cruise control and collision warning/avoidance systems has increased in recent years. Many systems based on frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) radar have emerged and are still in development. Due to the high complexity of such systems, the accurate evaluation of the noise spectra in the transmitter chain driven by complex modulated signals is today a severe drawback due to the limitation of simulation tools. In this paper, a method is proposed to compute easily with any commercially available nonlinear simulator, the amplitude and phase modulated signal distortion introduced by the nonlinearities of the transmitter on an FMCW signal. First, the amplitude modulation (AM) and phase modulation (PM) noise spectra of the driving FMCW signal is derived from the knowledge of the continuous wave (CW) AM and PM noise spectra of the voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), and the modulating saw-tooth signal applied. Using the narrow band envelope concept and a first-order expansion of the nonlinear transfer function of the transmitter, the transfer of the AM and PM noise spectra of the driving FMCW signal through the nonlinear transmitter chain and the resulting output distortion are then computed. This novel approach allows to compute with reduced computation time and very good accuracy the AM/AM, AM/PM, PM/PM, and PM/AM conversion terms in any nonlinear system driven by CW or FMCW signals. This new method has been applied to the characterization of a whole car radar transmitter operating at 77 GHz driven by an FMCW signal issuing from a VCO. A successful comparison between measured and simulated PM-to-AM conversion coefficients of this transmitter is shown, validating the proposed method.     

Robust control of an electromagnetic active suspension system: Simulations and measurements

This paper considers the control of a novel high bandwidth electromagnetic active suspension system for a quarter car model in both simulations and experiments. The nature of the control problem with multiple objectives that have to be optimized as well as the uncertain parameters of the plant call for an H_∞-controller. By changing weighting filters different controllers can be designed, emphasizing either comfort or handling. Using the high bandwidth of the actuator comfort can be improved by 40% over the passive BMW whilst keeping suspension travel within the same limits. Using a different controller, handling can be improved up to 30%, limited by RMS actuator force.     

Force control for hydraulic load simulator using self-tuning grey predictor – fuzzy PID

Hydraulic systems play an important role in modern industry for the reason that hydraulic actuator systems have many advantages over other technologies with electric motors, as they possess high durability and the ability to produce large forces at high speeds. Therefore, the hydraulic actuator has a wide range of application fields such as hydraulic punching, riveting, pressing machines, and molding technology, where controlled forces or pressures with high accuracy and fast response are the most significant demands. Consequently, many hybrid actuator models have been developed for studying how to control forces or pressures with best results.This paper presents a kind of hydraulic load simulator for conducting performance and stability testing related to the force control problem of hydraulic hybrid systems. In the dynamic loading process, perturbation decreases control performance such as stability, frequency response, and loading sensitivity decreasing or bad. In order to improve the control quality of the loading system while eliminating or reducing the disturbance, a grey prediction model combined with a fuzzy PID controller is suggested. Furthermore, fuzzy controllers and a tuning algorithm are used to change the grey step size in order to improve the control quality. The grey prediction compensator can improve the system settle time and overshoot problems. Simulations and experiments on the hydraulic load simulator are carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed control method when applied to hydraulic systems with various external disturbances encountered in real working conditions.     

Extended state observer-based time-optimal control for fast and precise point-to-point motions driven by a novel electromagnetic linear actuator

An extended state observer-based time-optimal control is proposed in this paper to achieve fast and precise point-to-point motions driven by a novel electromagnetic linear actuator. Working principle and characteristics of the actuator are analyzed. Total disturbance is estimated by an extended state observer, and the nonlinear system is compensated as a linear one. Time-optimal control is used to realize accurate point-to-point motions with minimal time. Comparative simulations and experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, especially for non-repetitive point-to-point motions, and good positioning performance has been achieved in the presence of both model uncertainties and external disturbances.     

Modeling and control of steering system of heavy vehicles for automated highway systems

This work presents modeling, analysis, and controller design of the steering subsystem of heavy vehicles as a subsystem of vehicle lateral control system for the automated highway systems. A physical model of the steering subsystem is derived where the hydraulic power assist unit is modeled as a family of static nonlinear boost curves. Based on open-loop frequency tests and analysis of the physical model structure and its dynamical characteristics, a nominal second order linear model of the steering subsystem is obtained. Then, a linear robust loop-shaping controller is designed to provide a good tracking performance of the closed-loop dynamics of the steering subsystem for varying gain cross over frequencies which is a result of the nonlinear characteristics of the hydraulic power assist. The controller has been successfully incorporated as an inner-loop controller into the nested lateral control architecture for autonomous driving and its efficacy has been demonstrated experimentally.     

Neural Adaptive Compensation Control for a Class of MIMO Uncertain Nonlinear Systems with Actuator Failures

A neural adaptive compensation control scheme for a class of multi-input multi-ouput (MIMO) uncertain nonlinear systems with actuator failures is proposed based on prescribed performance bound (PPB) transient performance which characterizes the convergence rate and maximum overshoot of the tracking error. RBF neural networks are used to approximate the error of plant model, the control law proposed can guarantee the asymptotic output tracking and closed-loop signal bounds. The control scheme is applied to a twin otter aircraft longitudinal nonlinear dynamics model in the presence of unknown failures. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.