Chattering analysis of an electro-hydraulic backstepping velocity controller

Abstract

This paper focuses on the chattering analysis in a backstepping controller used to drive an electro-hydraulic servo system. The chattering phenomenon, well known in sliding mode control, strongly reduces operating performance while causing premature wear of the system. Four cases are studied to highlight the factors influencing the chattering in the backstepping control. In the first case, the effect of the unmodeled fast servo valve dynamics is analysed by comparing a reduced-order backstepping controller with a full-order controller. The second case analyses the sensitivity to the tuning gains of the backstepping controller. The third case emphasises the influence of the parameter of sign function approximation. The last case analyses the sensitivity of the parameter of the time derivative of the virtual controls. The simulation results in the Matlab/Simulink show that the chattering is mitigated by an appropriate gains tuning but above all an appropriate calculation of the derivatives of the virtual controls, particularly for high-order systems.