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Procedia Engineering 16 (2011) 518 – 525

International Workshop on Automobile, Power and Energy Engineering

An Application of Mixed Sensitivity Control Method in

Direct-Drive Electro-Hydraulic Servo System
Deyou Lia*, Hongjie Wanga, Yang Yaoa , Shixun Liua ,Lei Hana
a
School of Energy Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001,China

Abstract

Firstly the article introduces working principle of direct drive electro-hydraulic servo system and robust H theory,
then builds the mathematical model of this system and the robust H controller, and applies this controller and PID
method to the actual system. The experimental results indicate that the system adopting robust control shows the
ability to suppress most disturbances, and satisfies the general requirement of hydraulic system in varied working
condition.

© 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Society for
Automobile, Power and Energy Engineering
Keywords- robust control; H mixed sensitivity; direct drive electro-hydraulic servo system; time response;

1. Introduction

In recent years, along with the rapid development of AC servo technology, there appears the direct
drive electro-hydraulic servo system, which is a new kind of control method in electro-hydraulic servo
system using frequency conversion technology. As the motor does not have to always work at high speed,
this system saves energy remarkably. Japan, Germany, USA and Sweden have developed a sophisticated
technology for a long time in this research field, but Comparing to this, there are only a few domestic
institutes take part in it, and most researchers focus on its energy-saving potential rather than applying it
to position-control or velocity-control system [1]. In this paper, the working principle of direct drive

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +86-152-4460-4600 .

E-mail address: lideyouhit@163.com .

1877-7058 © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2011.08.1119
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electro-hydraulic servo system is introduced, then the paper puts forwards the mathematical model of this
system, and then the robust H controller is built. Comparing the experiment results of the system
s
response to step and sine signal under robust H and traditional PID control respectively, some useful
conclusions is finally gained.

2. Direct drive electro-hydraulic servo system model building

2.1. System model building

The direct drive electro-hydraulic servo system studied here uses servo-actuator instead of electro-
hydraulic servo valve to drive two-direction fixed displacement pump.
In this system, the computer sends control signals to the motor controller which controls the AC
PMSM servo motor. Servo motor drives the two-direction quantitative pump through oil-way, and finally
drives the hydraulic cylinder. Displacement sensor gathers signal of the hydraulic cylinder, and feeds it
back to the computer control system, which uses a closed-loop control to realize the position control of
hydraulic cylinder [2]. The system is shown in Fig1.

1. AC servo motor 2. Two-direction constant delivery pump 3. Pilot check valve

4. Pilot check valve 5. Position detector 6. Hydraulic cylinder
Fig1Electro-hydraulic servo control systems
As the hydraulic cylinder is not symmetrical, when the pump supplies oil to the non-rod cylinder, the
oil flow from rod cylinder is less than the flow goes into the non-rod cylinder. Then the valve 4 opens oil
is suctioned from the oil tank to the system; When the pump supplies oil to the other cylinder, the oil flow
from rod cylinder is more than the flow goes into the non-rod cylinder, so valve 3 opens, and discharges
the residual oil flow back to the tank through pilot check valve.

2.2. Mathematic Model

The AC motor mainly consists of the mechanical part and the electric part, and the precise
mathematical model of it is very complicated. But in fact, frequency band of AC speed regulating system
is enormously wider than that of the whole direct drive electro-hydraulic servo system, so it can be seen
as a proportional part, and then the transfer function can be presented as:
N p ( s) Kv
= (1)
U (s) Te s + 1
Np(s)-output rotation rate, r/min;
U(s)-input control voltage, v;
Kv -rotation rate gain, r/min/v;
Te-electro-mechanical time constant of the system;
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From the flow continuity equation and the force equilibrium equation of the piston, the mathematic
model of actuator could be obtained. While ignoring the viscous damping and elasticity of the load, the
transfer function of positive displacement of the piston is:
DP N P ( s )  ⎛ V ⎞
− 2 ⎜ 1 + 1 s ⎟ FL ( s )
A1 A1 ⎝ 2
e ⎠ (2)
Y (s) =
⎛ s2  ⎞
s ⎜ 2 + 2 h s + 1⎟

⎝ h  h ⎠
λ-leakage coefficient, (m3/s)/Pa
βe-bulk modulus of elasticity, Pa;
Dp-flow of pump, m3/rad;
FL-external disturbance force, N;
A1-effective section area of left cylinder, m2;
V1-volume of the high pressure cylinder (including volume of pipe and pump), m3;

h-natural frequency of the system,  = 2
e A12 , rad/s;
h
V2 m
 h -damping ratio,  h =
C
e m ;
A1 2V2
The system uses the magneto astrictive sensor. The sensor’s frequency is enormously wider than that
of the signal, and it has good linearity. So it can be seen as a proportional part:
U (s) (3)
=K c
Y (s)
Ke-gain of the position sensor, V/m
Synthesizing above analysis, the transfer function of the system is obtained. The transfer function of
the controller is the of KP . Opening loop transfer function is:
h2 K (4)
G( s) =
s ( s 2 + 2hh s + h 2 )
K-opening loop gain, K=KPKvDp/TeA1non-dimensional number.
The closed loop transfer function [3] of the piston displacement referring to input can be represented as:
h2 K
W (s) = 3 (5)
s + 2 hh s 2 + h2 s + h2 K
The closed loop transfer function of the cylinder displacement referring to disturbance can be
represented as:
 2C ⎛ V ⎞
− h 2 ⎜1 + 1 s ⎟
Te A1 ⎝ C
e ⎠ (6)
W f (s) = 3
s + 2 hh s 2 + h2 s + h2 K

3. Robust H ∞ theory
Robust control is a kind of control method, by which the system could achieve a good performance
even when system model contains uncertainty factors. Robust control has been developed in the 1950s,
and in the past twenty years, has been a worldwide research focus in the field of control. The so-called
"robustness" refers to the ability that control system maintains certain performance characteristics under a
finite perturbation, such as structure and size. According to the different definitions of performance, it can
be divided into the stabilization robustness and performance robustness. Robust controller is the
controller designed under the request of closed-loop system robustness [4].
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H ∞ control theory is goal to obtain a robustness controller by optimize the performance using the
analytic optimization of infinite norm in H ∞ space. H ∞ space is the upper bound of the largest singular
value in open right plane, Norm physical of H ∞ means system obtaining maximum energy gain [5].

4. Design of the robust H ∞ controller

Transform the performance and stability of the system into H∞ theory norm constraints conditions. If
using multiplicity perturbations to describe system uncertainties together, there will be two conditions
written as:
WS S
<1
WT T
(7)
WT is the weight function of complementary sensitivity; Ws is the weight function of sensitivity. The
amplitude of Ws(s) determines the capability of interference attenuation and tracking performance of the
system; WT reflects the robust stability of the system [6].
General principles of selecting weight functions:
(1) WS and Ws(s) must satisfy S ( s) + T ( s) = 1 . Because the controller designed by using the mixed
sensitivity control method has the same rank with the generalized controlled object including
weight functions. In order to guarantee the system’s reliability, first-order function is usually
selects as the controller.
(2) Ws(s) determines the tracking boundary of the system. As the smaller the sensitivity weight
function is, the better tracking performance is, the cut-off frequency of Ws(s) should be selected in
low frequency to ensure that the system has good low frequency tracking performance. And the
smaller the complementary sensitivity weight function is, the better robustness is.
(3) The frequency of the external input and external disturbance signal of system is generally low.
Therefore the amplitude of Ws(s) at low frequency should be as large as possible, and low-pass
filter characteristics is required.
(4) WT(s), which reflects inherent characteristics of the object itself, is decided by the uncertainty of
the model, namely the high-frequency unmodeled dynamics characteristic and the uncertainty of
the model parameter, and does not change in the design. Due to the high frequency unmodeled
dynamics characteristic and measurement noise is relatively minor at low frequency, the amplitude
of WT(s) at low frequency should be as small as possible in order to increase the amplitude of Ws(s),
so WT(s) should have high-pass filter characteristics.
According to the rules above, we can choose:
s (8)
W ( s ) = 0.08(
T + 1) 2
200
0.01s + 268s + 4489
2
(9)
WS ( s ) =
s2
The positive and negative of nominal model of the system are as follows:
Positive: 3.52 (10)
Go( s ) =
s (0.02s + 1)
Negative: 6.63 (11)
Go( s ) =
s (0.02s + 1)
Applying robust toolbox in Simulink of Matlab software, a stable controller can be obtain:
7.503s 3 + 10 s 2 + 3s + 1.005 (12)
K= 4
s + 15.542 s 3 + 10.802 s 2 + 6.002 s + 1
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5. Experiments and results

5.1. Introduction of direct-drive electro-hydraulic experiment

Direct-drive electro-hydraulic servo system is a new kind of hydraulic control system. Its controlling
performance depends not only on the mechanical structure, but also the design and election of the
controlling approach. Considering the new structure of direct-drive electro-hydraulic servo system, step
response and sine response by using PID and robust H ∞ experiment have been carried out in this paper.
Then, the result is analyzed by comparison [7].
The experiment system is shown in Fig 2,3, in which loading is inertia loading.

Fig 2. Constituent sketch of direct drive electro-hydraulic servo system

Fig 3. Photo of experimental table and control system

5.2. Experimental Results and analysis

In this paper, experiment with varied load and varied speed of motor is conducted, and comparison of
PID control and robust control is developed.
(1) Keep the motor speed a constant and changes the inertial load. The responses to a 30mm
amplitude sine input of PID system and robust system are shown in Fig 4.

Amplitude 30mm, No-load

PID control Robust control
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Amplitude 30mm, 50kg load

PID control Robust control

Amplitude 30mm, 100kg load

Amplitude 30mm, 100kg load
Fig 4. Compare of mixed sensitivity and PID with variable load
Conclusion: while load varied, the steady precision and tracking performance of PID control system
response changes obviously, range from 0.14s when no-load to 0.17s when 50kg load, and then to 0.19s
when 100kg load. But the phase difference of Robust control system with inertial load range from 0kg to
100kg almost keeps at 0.17s, and its response curve changes little, which indicates the robust control
system has good stability and strong adaptability to the variation of parameter.
(2) Reducing the motor speed and keep it a constant, then changes the inertial load. The response of
PID system and robust system is shown in Fig 5.

Amplitude 20mm, No-load

PID control Robust control
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Amplitude 20mm, 100kg load

PID control Robust control
Fig.5 Compare of mixed sensitivity and PID after varying speed
Conclusion: with the rotating speed reduced, dynamic performances of PID system and robust system
are also receded. The phase difference of PID system and robust system is practically the same for 0.18
sand tracking performance is still relatively satisfying, When the inertial load was enlarged to 100kg,
robust control system can maintain the same tracking speed and steady precision of no-load, but PID
system appears much poorer .The phase difference of PID system has increased to 0.22s, and output
signal could hardly tracking on the given frequency sine signal, tracking performance and steady
precision appears very poor.
(3) The step response experiment with varied speed and varied load cases.
1.The step response of the system under the motor speed of 750r/min is shown in Fig 6:

Amplitude 30mm, No-load, step response

PID control Robust control
Fig.6 Compare of mixed sensitivity and PID with variable load when 750rad/min speed

Figure above shows the step response experiment under the normal speed of servo motor. Through the
experimental results, we can get that, in no-load case, the response time of PID control system is 0.35s,
and the overshoot is 2%, which satisfy the requirement. The response time of robust control system is
0.4s, and overshoots is very small. As for response settling time, both systems are 0.5s. Considering
comprehensively, robust control and PID control have very good effectives for rapid response and steady-
state precision under the motor speed of 750r/min.
2. The step response of the system under the motor speed of 750r/min is shown in Fig 7:
 Deyou Li et al. / Procedia Engineering 16 (2011) 518 – 525 525

Amplitude 30mm, 100kg load, step response

PID control Robust control
Fig.7 Compare of mixed sensitivity and PID after varying load and speed 500rad/min
Experimental results show that in 100kg inertial load case, the response time of PID control is 0.55 s,
and the overshoots is 5%; the response settling time is nearly 1s, which is relatively long. The response
time of robust control is 0.5 s, the overshoots is 1.5%, and response settling time is nearly the same as
response time, while its stable precision is higher. In the same condition, rapid type of the two control is
similar, , but compared with PID control, dynamic performance of system can be well improved in the
aspects of stable precision and overshoots under robust control.

6. Conclusion

Direct driving electro-hydraulic position servo system applies AC servo system as the control elements
to adjust the quantitative pump output flow. This is one important direction of the developing electro-
hydraulic servo system research. Comparing system response of robust control and PID control , it can be
got that the former improves the ability of adapting varied parameters, stable robustness, and dynamic
performance of the system greatly. than the latter has been greatly improved. The robust H∞ controller
using mixed sensitivity method, makes the Direct-drive electro-hydraulic servo system satisfying the
general requirements of hydraulic systems, and has important practical value.

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