A Singular Perturbation Theory-Based Composite Control Design for a Pump-Controlled Hydraulic Actuator with Position Tracking Error Constraint

Abstract

Pump-controlled hydraulic actuators (PHAs) contain slow mechanical and fast hydraulic dynamics, and thus singular perturbation theory can be adopted in the control strategies of PHAs. In this article, we develop a singular perturbation theory-based composite control approach for a PHA with position tracking error constraint. Disturbance observers (DOBs) are used to estimate the matched and mismatched uncertainties for online compensation. A sliding surface-like error variable is proposed to transform the second-order mechanical subsystem into a first-order error subsystem. Consequently, the position tracking error constraint of the PHA is decomposed into the output constraint of the first-order error subsystem and the stabilizing of the first-order hydraulic subsystem. Slow and fast control laws can be easily designed without using the backstepping technique, thus simplifying the control design and reducing the computational burden to a large extent. Theoretical analysis verifies that desired stability properties can be achieved by an appropriate selection of the control parameters. Simulations and experiments are performed to confirm the efficacy and practicability of the proposed control strategy.