title: Robust control design for a wheel loader using Hinfinity and feedback linearization based methods.
abstract: The heavy equipment industry is building more and more equipment with electro-hydraulic control systems. The existing industry practices for the design of control systems in construction machines primarily rely on classical designs coupled with ad-hoc synthesis procedures. Such practices produce desirable results, but lack a systematic procedure to account for invariably present plant uncertainties in the design process as well as coupled dynamics of the multi-input multi-output (MIMO) configuration. In this paper, two H(infinity) based robust control designs are presented for an automatic bucket leveling mechanism of a wheel loader. In one case, the controller is designed for the base plant model. In another case, the controller is designed for the plant with a feedback linearization control law applied yielding improved stability robustness. A MIMO nonlinear model for an electro-hydraulically actuated wheel loader linkage is considered. The robustness of the controller designs are validated by using analysis and by simulation using a complete nonlinear model of the wheel loader linkage and hydraulic system.
authors.affiliation: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65202, USA. falesr@missouri.edu
authors.forename: Roger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fales
authors.forename: Atul
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kelkar
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005246:Feedback; D016014:Linear Models; D011786:Quality Control