Robust tracking control in the inertia phase for generalised disturbance

• Published in: Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Part C, Journal of mechanical engineering science Journal of mechanical engineering science, 2021-08, Vol.235 (16), p.2897-2910
• Main Authors: Cao, Guoxiang, Wang, Anlin, Li, Xiaotian, Xu, Donghuan, Fan, Xucan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Automatic transmissions; Compensation; Control equipment; Control methods; Controllers; Disturbance observers; Feedforward control; Inertia; Loaders; Model matching; Random loads; Robust control; Simulation; Tracking control; Transfer functions
• ISSN: 0954-4062; 2041-2983
• DOI: 10.1177/0954406220961124

To solve the problem of shift shock during the inertia phase caused by generalized disturbances in wheel loaders and other construction instruments, a robust double closed-loop tracking control method based on an improved disturbance observer (DOB) has been proposed. In this method, the inner loop robustly suppresses disturbance and the outer loop realizes trajectory tracking. The improved DOB based on a nominal disturbance value (NDV) can enhance the disturbance suppression ability of the inner loop when a large part of the generalized disturbance is determinable. The model matching method transforms the outer loop into a transfer function to meet the expected performance. A disturbance compensation controller eliminates the nominal disturbance in the system. A feedforward compensation controller eliminates the influence of reference inputs in the system. Considering the inertia phase of a fixed-axis automatic transmission of a wheel loader, the proposed method was applied to the driveline simulation platform of a specific type of wheel loader. Random loads under actual working conditions were considered as the input load of the simulation platform. The simulation results indicated that the DOB based on the NDV method has better disturbance suppression capability, more accurate tracking capability and smaller shift shock than the conventional DOB method. The proposed control method exhibits robustness under 10%, 50% and 90% of the maximum load. The highest shift shock is 4.94% of the manual shift shock and it is effectively reduced. Thus, robust and smooth inertia phase shift control of the automatic transmission can be realized. This study presents an effective method for solving robust disturbance suppression control problems and tracking control problem under large generalized disturbances.