• 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.11 no.2
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• pp.30-35
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• 2014

The pumps of electro-hydrostatic actuators operate most frequently in boundary lubrication speed range, as they compensate for the position control errors as a control element. When conventional swash plate type piston pumps are applied to electro-hydrostatic actuators, the frictional power losses as well as the wear rate of sliding components, such as piston shoes can increase drastically under the boundary friction condition. In this paper, the power losses of the piston shoes were investigated which were engendered by a frictional solid-to-solid contact and leakage flow rate of their hydrostatic bearing. In order to reduce them, DLC-coating was applied to the swash plate and the ball joint of pistons along with its effects were demonstrated. In addition, it was also shown that the wear rate of the piston shoes could be markedly reduced using the DLC-coated swash plate.

• 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.12 no.2
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• pp.21-26
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• 2015

In order to design a swash plate type pump for electro-hydrostatic actuators the performance of the hydrostatic piston shoe bearings in the low speed range needs to be examined, since the pump operates frequently at low speeds, compensating for position control errors as a control element. As a common practice, piston shoes are equipped with inner rings as an auxiliary element to enhance their tribological performance. In this paper, the effects of the inner rings of the piston shoes on the frictional loss and leakage flow rate were investigated, where three piston shoe models, with different inner ring shapes and different inlet orifice sizes, were integrated. The test results showed that a large inner ring and small inlet orifice were advantageous for reducing both the frictional loss and leakage flow rate; this could also be confirmed by computational analyses.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.316-322
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• 2007

The EHA(Electro-hydrostatic Actuator) reveals completely different characteristics from the conventional valve-controlled Electro-hydraulic actuators. In this paper, its mathematical model including nonlinear elements was derived to be verified by experiments. Based on this, a simulation program was developed for the EHAs consisting of an electric motor driven hydraulic pump, pipe lines and a cylinder. The influence of important design parameters such as peak motor torque and rotational inertia moment of the hydraulic pump on control performance was investigated, where the test condition was intentionally selected so that the motor torque was saturated during the transient phase. As a result, design requirements for improving the control accuracy under full speed operation conditions of the EHAs were investigated.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2014

The conventional hydraulic circuits for electro-hydrostatic actuators equipped with a single-rod cylinder can oscillate under overrunning load conditions. In this paper the oscillation problem encountered in the conventional hydraulic circuits for EHAs is analyzed and it is shown by simulation results that this problem can be solved by employing a counter balance valve instead of a pilot-operated check valve generally used in the conventional hydraulic circuits.

• Journal of Drive and Control
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.16-22
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• 2012

Nowadays, electro hydrostatic actuator (EHA) has shown great advantages over the conventional hydraulic actuators with valve control system. This paper presents a position control for an EHA using a modified back stepping controller. The controller is designed by combining a backstepping technique and adaptation laws via special Lyapunov functions. The control signal consists of an adaptive control signal to compensate for the nonlinearities and a simple robust structure to deal with a bounded disturbance. Experiments are carried out to investigate the effectiveness of the proposed controller.

• Journal of Drive and Control
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.55-60
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• 2018

Force-controlled electro-hydrostatic actuators have to exhibit high backdrivability, to quickly compensate for force control errors caused by externally disturbed rod movement. To obtain high backdrivability, the servomotor for driving the hydraulic pump, should rotate exactly to such a revolution to compensate for force control errors, compressing or decompressing cylinder chambers. In this study, we proposed a modified velocity control structure, including a robust internal-loop compensator (RIC)-based velocity controller, for the servomotor to improve backdrivability of a force-controlled EHA. Performance improvement was confirmed experimentally, wherein sinusoidal velocity disturbance was applied to the force-controlled EHA, with constant reference input. Its dynamic force control errors reduced effectively, with the proposed control scheme, compared to test results with a conventional motordriver, for motor velocity control.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.7-13
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• 2014

In order to enable fail-safe operation the electro-hydrostatic actuators can be dualized. When a symmetrical actuator is combined in series with an asymmetrical actuator with single rod cylinder, the flow rates of their cylinders are unmatched. If their position controller has same configuration, one of their pumps can supply too much flow rate under particular load conditions, which should be bypassed into low pressure side e.g. by a relief valve. In this paper it is shown how the hydraulic circuit for the asymmetrically combined electro-hydrostatic actuator can be designed without sacrificing power consumption.

• Journal of Drive and Control
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.15-21
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• 2019

In this study, the maximum system efficiency of the electro-hydrostatic actuators was experimentally investigated, where small size external gear pumps with volumetric displacement under 1.3 cc/rev were combined with a 400W servomotor as the prime mover. Since the efficiency data of the servomotor, gear pumps and hydraulic cylinder were not provided by the suppliers, experimental apparatuses for their efficiency measurement were extra built up. When a gear pump with a volumetric displacement of 1.27cc/rev was used on an electro-hydrostatic actuator system, the maximum system efficiency was not higher than 70%. This was because the most effective operation ranges of the motor and pump did not coincide each other. In order to match their operation ranges as one of the most crucial design factors, a speed reduction mechanism can be used, such as a timing belt. It was shown in the study that the maximum system efficiency could be increased from 70% to 76% in that way.