• Journal of Drive and Control
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.17-22
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• 2017

In this study, the back-drivability of the single-rod and double-rod type EHAs (Electro-Hydrostatic Actuators) was compared by computer simulation and experiments. The back-drivability of EHAs exhibit non-linear behavior like their force tracking performance. In case of the double-rod type EHA, the back-drivability was mostly influenced by the bulk modulus of oil that changes with the working pressure due to entrapped air. The back-drivability of the single-rod type EHA was directly affected by the operation states of its pilot-operated check valves, while the asymmetrical piston geometry and the non-linear bulk modulus of oil also made the dynamic response in building up the cylinder pressure dependent on the operating conditions.

• Journal of Drive and Control
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.32-38
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• 2016

For this paper, the position-control performances of dual EHA(electro-hydrostatic actuator) systems were investigated according to two cases wherein the double-rod- and single-rod-type hydraulic cylinders were combined. Since the control performance is significantly dependent on the load conditions including external forces such as the inertia load, it is proposed here that the two sub-EHAs are driven by separate position and force controllers, instead of two identical position controllers. According to the simulation results, the best performance was achieved by the position-controlled single-rod-type EHA that was combined with a force-controlled double-rod-type EHA. As the force-controlled double-rod-type EHA compensated for the external loads on the position-controlled single-rod-type EHA, the position-control performance was not influenced by external forces including the inertia load. In addition, the position-controlled single-rod-type EHA contributed to the enhancement of the damping ratio by absorbing the pressure peaks through its internal accumulator. Due to the symmetrical piston areas, the double-rod-type EHA is more suitable for force control than the single-rod- type EHA.

• Journal of Drive and Control
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.9-16
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• 2017

In this study, the force tracking performance of the single-rod and double-rod type EHAs (Electro-Hydrostatic Actuators) was compared by computer simulation and experiments. The force-controlled EHAs exhibit non-linear behavior that are significantly dependent on operation conditions. The investigation focused on localizing the parameters that provide significant rise to the non-linearity. For this, the single-rod and double-rod type EHAs were mathematically expressed to derive their linear models. In parallel, they were modeled by a commercial simulation program including non-linear properties based on experimental results. It was shown that the dependency of the bulk modulus of oil with entrapped air on working pressure dominated the non-linearity in force control performance in case of the double-rod type EHA. The force control of the single-rod type EHA was influenced by much more elements. Besides the asymmetrical piston geometry and the non-linear bulk modulus of oil, its pilot-operated check valves made it dependent not only on the magnitude of reference input but also on its direction.

• Journal of Drive and Control
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.1-9
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• 2016

In this paper, an elementary force fighting problem was investigated. The problem is encountered when a double-rod type EHA(electro-hydrostatic actuator) is combined with a single-rod type EHA to build a redundant actuator system with synchronized motion. When the rod-side chambers of the two different types of EHAs have the same effective piston areas and are simultaneously pressurized by an external load, the two EHAs behave identically, sharing the external load equally. However, when the piston head-side chamber of the single rod type EHA, having a larger effective area than the rod-side chamber, is pressurized by the external load, an abnormal force fighting between the two EHAs occurs, unless their pump speeds are properly decoupled. In this study, the output drive forces of each EHA were obtained from the cylinder pressure signals and applied to the position control for each EHA to maintain the balance between their pump speeds. Adding minor force difference feedback loops to the position control, the force fighting phenomena could be eliminated and steady state synchronization errors were reduced. The power consumption of the pumps also could be remarkably reduced, avoiding unnecessarily high load pressures to the pumps.