Output feedback control of electro-hydraulic asymmetric cylinder system with disturbances rejection

Abstract

To achieve accurate position control of electro-hydraulic asymmetric cylinder system with only available displacement signal, an output feedback controller is proposed in this paper. The dynamic model of the system is expressed as a Brunovsky form, which helps to estimate the system states and simplify the controller structure. Then Levant differentiator is introduced to estimate the position, velocity and acceleration of the asymmetric cylinder system based on the output signal, which can reduce the impact of measurement noise compared to the means of calculating the time derivative of the displacement signal directly. Besides, a high gain disturbance observer is designed to reject the lumped disturbance rejection of the system including parameter uncertainty, modelling error and external disturbance. Moreover, a sliding mode surface is introduced to the controller design and a robust item with continuous function is applied to compensate for estimation errors. According to Lyapunov theory, the developed output controller is pledged to be stable that can realize disturbance rejection control as well as backstepping-free control. Furthermore, a large-size asymmetric cylinder experimental rig is set up to simulate practical applications environment. Comparative experimental results reveal the validity and potential practical meaning of the developed control approach.