Adaptive and nonlinear control of discharge pressure for variable displacement axial piston pumps

This paper proposes, for the first time without using any linearization or order reduction, an adaptive and model-based discharge pressure control design for the variable displacement axial piston pumps (VDAPPs), whose dynamical behaviors are highly nonlinear and can be described by a fourth-order differential equation. The rigorous stability proof, with an asymptotic convergence, is given for the entire system. In the proposed novel controller design method, the specifically designed stabilizing terms constitute an essential core to cancel out all the stability-preventing terms. The experimental results reveal that rapid parameter adaptation significantly improves the feedback signal tracking precision compared to a known-parameter controller design. In the comparative experiments, the adaptive controller design demonstrates the state-of-the-art discharge pressure control performance, enabling a possibility for energy consumption reductions in hydraulic systems driven with VDAPP.