Proceedings of the ASME 2009 Dynamic Systems and Control Conference

DSCC2009
October 12-14, 2009, Hollywood, California, USA

DSCC2009-2586

INNER-LOOP CONTROL FOR ELECTRO-HYDRAULIC (EHA) ACTUATION SYSTEMS

Mohammed A. El Sayed ∗ Saeid Habibi

Department of Mechanical Engineering Department of Mechanical Engineering
McMaster University McMaster University
Hamilton, On, Canada L8S 4L7 Hamilton, On, Canada L8S 4L7
Email: abugabma@mcmaster.ca Email: habibi@mcmaster.ca

ABSTRACT F Actuator induced force

This article presents the development of a multiple inner- Pa , Pb Pump port pressures
loop control strategy for improving the performance of hydro- Pcase Pressure at the case drain
static actuation systems. In these actuators, the presence of non- Ppipe Minimum system pressure in the outer circuit
linearities associated with pump/motor static friction and back- ξ Pump cross-port leakage coefficient
lash, pressure drop in the piping system, and nonlinear friction ωp Pump angular velocity
at the load have a significant effect on the performance and po- ωm Motor angular velocity
sitional accuracy of the system. Dp Pump volumetric displacement
The effect of nonlinear friction at the pump/motor inter- Ic ,Vc Control input current and voltage
face has been overcome by the use of a high gain pump-speed G1 Transfer function
inner-loop control strategy. In this article, the concept of inner- Kω Back emf
loop control will be extended to target specific sources of per- Rc , Lc Motor line to line resistance and inductance
formance degradation. Velocity feedback will be incorporated in Kc Motor gain
this manner to decrease the effects of pump backlash and non- J pm Motor/pump inertia
linear friction at the load. Simulation results supported by theo- K f ric Coefficient of friction
retical analysis indicate that a considerable improvement in per- K pvisc Coefficient of viscosity
formance can be achieved by the implementation of this control TDB Torque loss due to dead-band
strategy.

NOMENCLATURE 1 Introduction
a1 , a2 , a3 Coefficients of the quadratic friction model Hydraulic systems are commonly used for actuation and ma-
Q1 , Q2 Actuator flows nipulation of heavy loads. They are found in a variety of different
Qa , Qb Pump flows industries, such as in automotive, manufacturing, robotics, con-
x◦ , x The mean position, and displacement from the struction, and aerospace. Conventional hydraulic systems use a
mean position centralized constant pressure supply system. Pressurized fluid is
V◦ Mean actuator chamber volume then channeled to actuators using servo-valves. The advantages
P1 , P2 Actuator chamber pressures of these systems are their high torque to mass ratio, and the abil-
M Sliding mass of the mechanical load ity to control speed and direction with relative accuracy. How-
B Damping ratio for the mechanical load ever, according to [1], there are also many disadvantages such as
the requirement of a bulky centralized power system with a large
oil reservoir, fluctuations in the supply pressure, leakage, noise,
∗ Address all correspondence to this author. 1

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 50 -10

FEstimated= +21000V2-1450V+46

Friction Force (N)

Friction Force (N)

40 -20

30 -30

2
20 -40 FEstimated= -21000V -1450V-46

10 -50
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 -0.06 -0.04 -0.02 0
Piston Velocity (V, m/sec) Piston Velocity (V, m/sec)

(a) POSITIVE PISTON VELOCITIES (b) NEGATIVE PISTON VELOCI-

TIES

Figure 2. QUADRATIC FRICTION MODEL [5].

Figure 1. THE EHA CIRCUIT DIAGRAM, [4]

This problem was overcome by the use of a high gain pump-

and the reduced energy efficiency due to the hydraulic pump,
which is required to maintain a constant supply pressure.
Electro-Hydrostatic Actuation systems (EHA) alleviate
many of the above mentioned shortcomings of servo-valve con-
trolled hydraulic systems. In the EHA position control is
achieved by the pumping action. Here, the pump simply moves
oil from one chamber of the actuator to the other. A fixed dis-
placement gear pump in conjunction with an electric servo motor
is used to allow precision metering of flow variation. Load ma-
nipulation is achieved by changing the speed and the direction of
the pump.
A high precision EHA was prototyped in [1], [2] and has
demonstrated an excellent level of performance. Several control
strategy were implemented on the EHA and sub-micron resolu-
tion of 100 nanometers was reported [3]. In this paper a multiple
inner loop control strategy is implemented in simulation on a val-
idated model of the system reported in [3]to decrease the effects
of pump backlash and nonlinear friction at the load.
speed inner loop controller. As for the outer positional control
loop, a simple proportional control strategy was used, and a final
resolution of 100 nm was reported, [3].
In this section, the mathematical model of the EHA is re-
viewed and refined.
2.1 Load Friction Model
In a study performed by Chinniah [5] on the EHA prototype,
the nonlinear behavior of friction in EHA was experimentally
measured. A “quadratic” model was proposed, which was used
in conjunction with the Extended Kalman Filter for online esti-
mation of friction parameters. The friction force was assumed to
be a second order equation in load velocity, given by Eqn. (1).
Ff riction = a1 ẋ2 + a2 ẋ + a3 (1)

Note that a1 , a2 , a3 are the coefficients of the quadratic func-

2 Electro-Hydraulic (EHA) Actuation Systems tion. Chinniah’s friction model for the EHA prototype reported
in [3] is summarized by Eqns. (2, and 3), as illustrated by Fig. 1.
The EHA reported in [3]consists of the following (see Fig.
1):

• an electric motor, Ff riction = 2.1 × 104 ẋ2 − 1450ẋ + 46 ⇒ ẋ > 0 (2)

• a gear pump,
• a symmetrical actuator,
• pressure and position sensors,
• accumulator,
• pressure relief sub-circuit, and
• optional filtering subcircuit.
In this system, the pump only operates when control action
is needed, and thus the system has the advantage of an overall
better energy efficiency in comparison to swash plate hydrostatic
and valve controlled hydraulic systems. However, volumetric
efficiency is compromised at very low pump speeds, and a dead-
band is present, resulting in an effect similar to backlash.
Ff riction = 2.1 × 10 ẋ − 1450ẋ − 46
4 2
⇒ ẋ < 0 (3)
In this article, the quadratic friction model [5] will be used
in the development of an EHA simulation model. This is in turn
used for the performance analysis of a new multiple inner loop
control strategy.
2.2 Pump Backlash Model
As a result of manufacturing tolerances and assembly, there
always exist small gaps between a pair of mating gears. In
gear pumps such a gap is beneficial as it provides lubrication.

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 m  p
output

³
angle m p d QL
C B Gb m) Dp
dt
Slope k
O A

-b b input Figure 5. BLOCK DIAGRAM OF BACKLASH MODEL USED IN FRE-

angle
QUENCY RESPONSE ANALYSIS

D E

2.3 EHA Mathematical Model

Figure 3. BACKLASH NONLINEARITY, [6]
The EHA system in Fig. 1 can be divided into two hydraulic
sub-systems:
m m p
d  p QL 1. a high pressure outer circuit connected to the Symmetrical
³ dt
Dp
Linear Actuator, and
2. an inner circuit that employs the low-pressure accumulator.
Figure 4. BACKLASH BLOCK DIAGRAM
The accumulator sub-circuit function is to prevent cavitation
and replaces leakage losses. The inner circuit can be neglected
in modeling, since during normal operation, it will have a small
However, when changing the direction of rotation of the pump
effect on the dynamic performance. A detailed derivation of the
as shown in Fig. 3, this would result in a dead-band effect in
EHA dynamic equations is presented in [3] and simulated here.
the flow supply. for the purpose of this study a simple back-
The simulation model of the EHA will be constructed by consid-
lash model will be applied to the pump/gear angular position as
ering its components as follows.
shown in Fig. 4.
Describing functions are commonly used for frequency re-
sponse analysis of such nonlinearities [6]. The proposition of 2.3.1 Linear Symmetrical Actuator As previously
using a describing function is that a cyclic signal going through stated the dynamic significance of the accumulator flow can be
backlash zone can be adequately described by its first harmonic. assumed negligible, resulting in a simplification of the model
An equivalent gain can be obtained by using the describing func- such that pump inlet/outlet flows are assumed to be equal to the
tion approximation that is a function of the signals amplitude. outlet/inlet flows of the piston, i.e. Qa = Q1 and Qb = Q2 . Where
For a backlash of width 2b, given an input sinusoidal signal Qa and Qb denote pump in/outlet flows and, Q1 and Q2 are those
of amplitude θm , the output can be approximated as a sinusoid of the linear symmetrical piston.
of the same frequency with an amplitude of Gb (θm )θm , where
The piston rod is directly connected to a mass of M that
Gb (θm ) is given by Eqn. (4).
moves on a horizontal slide. A Friction force F(ẋ) is present
and will be characterized by using Chinniah’s quadratic friction
 model as defined by Eqns. (2 , and 3).
 
k π −1 2b Equations. (5 to 9) summarizes the equations of motion of
Gb (θm ) = − sin −1
π 2 θm the linear symmetrical actuator, and are used to derive the trans-
 2 
fer function Gcylinder relating load flow to actuator force given
 
2b 2b by Eqn. (10). The hydraulic cylinder/mechanical load block di-
− −1 1− −1 (4)
θm θm agram is presented by Fig. 6.

A(x◦ + x) dP1
where k is the nonzero slope of the linear part of the backlash Qa = Aẋ + + LP1 (5)
and in this case is assumed to be equal to 1. βe dt
A(x◦ − x) dP2
The accuracy of the describing function method has been Qb = Aẋ − − LP2 (6)
considered in detail in [6]. In the analysis presented in this pa- βe dt
per, the concern is not the accuracy of the model but how the F = (P1 − P2 )A = M ẍ + F(ẋ) (7)
proposed control strategy would overcome the dominant effect Qa + Qb
QL = (8)
of the backlash. As such, the backlash model is treated simply 2
as a gain that is a nonlinear function of the input amplitude as x◦ L
QL = Aẋ + Ḟ + F (9)
specified by Eqn. (4), and as shown in Fig. 5. 2βe 2A

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 F PPipe
QL GCylinder 1/M 1 / s2 x
+ +
- -

.
F(x)
2
As
-
F
P DP GH 1/M 1 / s2 x
Figure 6. HYDRAULIC CYLINDER/MECHANICAL LOAD BLOCK DIA- + +
- -
GRAM
.
F(x)

As
1 F
Gcylinder =  
= Q − Aẋ (10)
x◦
2βe s+ L
2A
L Figure 7. HYDRAULIC CIRCUIT/MECHANICAL LOAD BLOCK DIA-
GRAM

PPipe

2.3.2 Hydraulic Pump The hydraulic pump converts

2DP
the mechanical energy, provided by the electric motor, to fluid
flow. A bidirectional fixed displacement gear pump was used in -

the EHA system. The pump had three ports. Two large diame- VC KCG1
+ +
G2 m

ter input/output ports are directly connected to the symmetrical - -

linear actuator by solid tubing. The third port is a case drain pro- TDB
DP / A
vided for pump leakage. It should be noted that the EHA’s accu-
racy is dependant on the pump volumetric displacement. Thus,
a smaller volumetric displacement provides a higher resolution, F

and a lower rod speed. This presents a trade-off between maxi-

mum speed and positioning resolution. Figure 8. ELECTRIC MOTOR/PUMP BLOCK DIAGRAM

Equation. (11) represents the hydraulic pump element and is

used in conjunction with Eqns. (7, and 9) to derive the hydraulic 1
Rc
circuit transfer function GH given by Eqn. (12). The hydraulic G1 = Lc
(14)
circuit/mechanical load block diagram is presented by Fig. 7. Rc s + 1
Tm = Kc Ic (15)
Tm = J pm ω̇m + (K pvisc + K f ric )ωm + TDB + D p (Pa − Pb ) (16)
ξ x◦ 1
QL = D p ω p − F − Ḟ − 2ξPpipe (11) G2 = (17)
A 2βe J pm s + (Kc Kω G1 + K pvisc + K f ric )
1
GH = L +ξ (12)
x◦ Finally the complete EHA block diagram is shown in Fig. 9.
βe s + A
2

2.3.3 Electric Motor A high performance brush-less
DC servo motor is used to drive the hydraulic pump. The model
of the motor is well established and presented here in a summa-
rized form [7], and [8]. Equations. (13, 14, and 15) characterizes
the motor dynamics and are used in conjunction with Eqn. (16)
to derive the the electric motor/pump block diagram as shown in
Fig. 8.
Ic = G1 (Vc − Kω ωm )
3 Control Strategy
Further to [9], the control strategy of the EHA prototype in-
volved two control loops; a proportional control outer loop, and
a high-gain proportional/integral inner loop controller. It was re-
ported that this control strategy desensitizes the system to dead-
band caused by friction at the pump motor interface.
3.1 Motor/Pump Velocity Inner Loop
Referring to Fig.10, where Gcs is a proportional/integral
controller in the form of Gcs = K p + Ksi . The relationship be-
tween actual pump speed and the desired pump speed is given
(13) by:

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 PPipe PPipe

2DP 2

- -
Backlash
VC KCG1 G2 DP GH 1/M 1 / s2 x
+ + model + +
- - - -

.
TDB F(x)
DP / A

As

Figure 9. COMPLETE EHA BLOCK DIAGRAM

F PPipe 3.2 Inner Loop Control for Backlash Compensation

According to [10], the effect of free-play associated with
DP / A 2DP backlash in gear trains, occurs when the system is at rest or or
TDB
when it is changing direction. Accordingly both the position and
- -
-
velocity of the driving motor and the load would, respectively
d GCS KCG1 G2 m differ. In such a case, a differential position and velocity inner-
+ +
- loop feedback strategy would be beneficial. It should be noted
that the same argument is valid for the load nonlinear friction.
Hence, in order to reduce the sensitivity of the EHA to pump
Figure 10. ELECTRIC MOTOR INNER CONTROL LOOP [3]
free play and load friction, such an ineer-loop feedback term is
constructed by using both or either of the differential position or
velocity between the load and the motor. Figure. (11) represents
the EHA block diagram with the proposed control strategy, note
that, the positive sign of the additional feedback is based on the
conceptual description of the free play effect, [10]. The system
block diagram of Fig. 11 could be simplified to the form shown
Gcs Kc G1 G2 G2 in Fig. 12, where
ωp = ωd − TDB
1 + Gcs Kc G1 G2 1 + Gcs Kc G1 G2
G2
− 2Ppipe D p
1 + Gcs Kc G1 G2 G2 G2
ωmdist = TDB + 2Ppipe D p
G2 FD p 1 + Gcs Kc G1 G2 1 + Gcs Kc G1 G2
− (18)
1 + Gcs Kc G1 G2 A G2 FD p
+ (20)
1 + Gcs Kc G1 G2 A
where F is the actuator induced force, given by Eqn. (7). sA sA
Dcouple = + (21)
D p Ginner D p Gbcomp G3
Let:

Gcs Kc G1 G2 In Fig. 12 an element of the inner-loop for backlash com-

G3 = (19)
1 + Gcs Kc G1 G2 pensation and the free play part of the backlash model are en-
closed by a dotted enclosure with the following transfer function:

The examination of Eqn. (18) indicates that by using a high

gain inner loop speed controller, such that G2  Gcs Kc G1 G2 , Gb
and a careful selection of the motor such that |Kc G1 |  |G2 |, the Gbcomp = (22)
1 − Ginner G3
undesirable effect of dead-band TDB can be reduced. Further-
more, a high inner loop gain such that Gcs  1 will lead to a
more simplified dynamic characteristics such that G3  1 Note that in conjunction with motor/pump high gain inner

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 -
Ginner
PPipe + PPipe

2DP DP/A 2 s

+ - -
Backlash
xd Gpc GCS KCG1 G2 DP GH 1/M 1 / s2 x
+ + + + + model + +
- - - - - - -

.
TDB F(x)
DP / A

As

Bs

Figure 11. PROPOSED INNER LOOP CONTROL STRATEGY

.
F(x) 1
DpGHGbcompG3
Inner-loop Feedback
PPipe 2 for Backlash Compensation
DpGbcompG3
+ GinnerG3
+
mdist Gb
1
G3 +
- +

xd Gpc +
G3 1/s Gb( m) s DP GH GMech x
+ +
-
- -

Dynamic Coupling Term

Dcouple

Figure 12. SIMPLIFIED EHA BLOCK DIAGRAM

loop, where G3  1, Eqn. (22) simplifies to Further to Figs. (11, and 12), additional stabilizing effect
could be archived by adding an outer loop velocity feed back in
the form of Hx = sBx. This will vary the overall damping effect
in the system and thus helps in filtering some of the undesirable
Gb coupling effects.
Gbcomp = (23)
1 − Ginner

The free play associated with backlash impacts the ampli-

tude of the signal such |Gb | ≤ 1 as indicated in the describing 4 Simulation Results
function of Eqn. (4). Therefore, the effect of the free-play on A simulation model was created in Simulink/Matlab envi-
the amplitude can be overcome by using an inner loop controller ronment. Table 1 contains the values of the EHA mathemat-
such that ical model. A proportional/Integral controller is used for the
inner loop control Ginner as shown in Eqn. (25). A propor-
tional/Integral controller was used for the motor inner loop given
by Eqn. 26. Finally the outer position loop incorporated a pro-
0 < Ginner < 1 (24) portional controller as shown in Eqn. 27.

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 Table 1. PHYSICAL PARAMETERS OF THE EHA MATHEMATICAL Table 2. CONTROLLER PARAMETERS
MODEL, [3]

Symbol Value
Symbol Value Kp 41.87
B 2000 N/m/s KI 100.488
M 20 Kg K posConv 7.5 × 104
A 5.05 × 10−4 m2 K posMIL 2.3 × 105
V◦ 6.85 × 10−5 m3 Kinner 0.9
x◦ 0.1356 m Pinner 100
L 5 × 10−13 m3 /s/Nm−2 KB 2500
βe 2.1 × 108 Pa
ξ 2.5 × 10−13 m3 /s/Nm−2
Dp 1.7 × 10−7 m3 /rad -4
x 10
1.5
Ppipe 0 Input
Original Controller
Inner Loop Control
Rc 0.5 Ω 1

Lc 0.004 H
0.5

Kc 1 Nm/A
Position (m)

0
Kω 0.6 V /rad/s
K pvisc 2 × 10−4 Nm/rad/s -0.5

K f ric 2 × 10−4 Nm/rad/s

-1
J pm 1.6 × 10−3 kgm2
-1.5
TDB 0.001 Nm 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Time (sec)

Figure 13. SMALL SIGNAL SYSTEM TIME RESPONSE

5 Conclusions
In this paper, two inner-loop controllers are proposed in or-
der to desensitize the system to free play, motor static friction,
nonlinear load friction, and actuator dead zone. The strategies
Pinner − Kinner s
Ginner = (25) are implemented on a validated model of an Electro-Hydrostatic
 s  Actuation (EHA) systems. A theoretical and simulated analysis
s + Ki /K p of these inner-loop control strategies indicates that they result in
Gcs = K p (26)
s a very considerable improvement in performance.
G pc = K pos (27)

REFERENCES
Table 2 lists the control parameters used in simulation. In [1] Habibi, S., and Goldenberg, A., 2000. “Design of a new
Fig. 13 the input and the output are shown for the original single high-performance electrohydraulic actuator”. IEEE/ASME
inner loop control strategy and the proposed multiple inner loop Transactions on Mechatronics, 5(2), pp. 158 – 64.
strategy are compared. For this demanded input, the control in- [2] Habibi, S., and Goldenberg, A., 1999. “Design and analy-
put is shown by Fig. 14. sis of a new symmetrical linear actuator for hydraulic and

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 40

30

20
Control Input (rad/sec)

10

-10

-20

-30

-40

-50
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Time (sec)

Figure 14. CONTROL SIGNAL WITH MULTIPLE INNER LOOP CON-

TROL STRATEGY

pneumatic systems”. Transactions of the Canadian Society

for Mechanical Engineering, 23(3-4), pp. 377 – 396.
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