Aalborg Universitet

Advanced Power Management of a Telehandler using Electronic Load Sensing

Hansen, Rico Hjerm

Published in:
Proceedings of the 10th International Workshop on Research and Education in Mechatronics, REM2009

Publication date:
2009

Document Version
Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record

Link to publication from Aalborg University

Citation for published version (APA):

Hansen, R. H. (2009). Advanced Power Management of a Telehandler using Electronic Load Sensing. In
Proceedings of the 10th International Workshop on Research and Education in Mechatronics, REM2009
University of Strathclyde.

General rights
Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners
and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.

- Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research.
- You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain
- You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal -
Take down policy
If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us at [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to
the work immediately and investigate your claim.

Downloaded from vbn.aau.dk on: October 31, 2024

 10th International Workshop on Research and Education in Mechatronics
September 10th -11st 2009, Glasgow, UK

A DVANCED P OWER M ANAGEMENT OF A T ELEHANDLER USING

E LECTRONIC L OAD S ENSING
Rico H. Hansen1
1
Aalborg University, Department of Energy Technology, DK-9210 Aalborg East, Denmark

Abstract: New possibilities within electronic control of mobile hydraulic systems are becoming available
as hydraulic components are implemented with more electrical sensors and actuators.
This paper presents how the traditional hydro-mechanical load sensing (HLS) control of a specific mobile
hydraulic application, a telehandler, can be replaced with electronic control, i.e. Electronic Load Sensing
(ELS). The motivation for ELS is the potentials of better dynamic performance and system utilization,
along with reduced mechanical complexity by transferring features as pump pressure control, flow-sharing,
power-sharing, anti-stall and high pressure protection to electronic control. These features are integrated
into the developed control structure, which is implemented and tested.
The ability of electronically controlling the position of the swash-plate in a variable-displacement pump
is an essential part of the developed control solution. Hence, the development of a control structure for
electronic control of a variable-displacement axial piston pump using a three-way servo valve is also treated.

Keywords: Mechatronics, Hydraulics, Fluid Power, Control, Electronic Load Sensing, Power Management

I I NTRODUCTION mance could potentially be obtained, along with faster

commissioning as changing control parameters is
Today, the open circuit hydraulics on most mid effortless. The potential of electronic control in open
and higher end mobile machinery utilizes a hydro- circuit systems is also becoming recognized, and is
mechanical adaptable flow and pressure control supported by more stand-alone electronic controlled
scheme known as Hydraulic Load Sensing (HLS). components being introduced into the market.
Here the pump pressure is continuously controlled When moving to computer controlled components,
to be a preset margin higher than the highest load a range of control concepts is available, from making
pressure. an electronic analogy of the current HLS system to
The HLS-control scheme is implemented by con- using a different control topology. The research con-
trolling the displacement of a variable pump using ducted in electronic open circuit control mainly falls
a system of pilot-lines, pressure compensators and into three groups, Electronic Load Sensing (ELS),
shuttle valves. Features like high-pressure protec- Sum-of-Flow control (SummenStromRegelung, SSR)
tion, load-independent flow-control of actuators, flow- and Electronic Flow Matching (EFM).
sharing, toque-limitation etc., are also implemented The ELS control topology is treated by Esders in
using these hydro-mechanical components. [1] and Langen in [2], and is the electronic analogy
The success of HLS systems is due to their robust to HLS. The LS pressure is electronically sensed
components and improved energy efficiency com- and an electronic pump pressure controller operates
pared to constant pressure and/or constant flow sys- the pump based on the LS-pressure and a pump
tems. The drawbacks of HLS is a high commissioning pressure feedback. Regarding valve control, Esders
effort, as poorly designed HLS systems easily become found that by utilizing the pressure measurements the
oscillatory or even unstable. Due to the dynamical valve’s main spools could perform electronic pressure
complexity of HLS systems, tuning is based upon compensation, thereby providing load independent
experience and trial-and-error, and the tuning itself is proportional flow-control without the need of pressure
cumbersomely performed by adjusting or changing compensators. This was also used in [3], where it
springs, orifices, spool design, hose volumes, etc. was shown to be equivalent to a static feedback
The complexity and inflexibility of hydro-mechanical linearisation of the valve.
control also imposes restriction on making more Taking another approach, the SSR control topology
adaptable and intelligent control solutions. operates the pump without pressure feedback, but
The introduction of electronically controlled com- controls the pump to provide the sum of the requested
ponents into the open circuit systems offers the de- flows. This can be performed in either a open or
sired increase in flexibility and adaptability in the closed loop manor. The closed loop SSR control was
control, as digital control can be utilized. Hence, investigated by Zähe in [4], where the velocities of
improved system utilization and dynamic perfor-
REM2009, Glasgow, UK

the actuators constitute the main feedback signals for II S YSTEM D ESCRIPTION
pump and valve control.
In [5] an open loop version of SSR is investigated, The application used for ELS feasibility testing is
where pressure sensors are equipped on all valve a Merlo P 35.11 EVS telehandler from 1997. As
ports. The pump displacement is controlled to give seen in Fig. 1, the machine has been re-equipped
the sum of flow references, the control valve of the with electronic controlled open circuit components
highest loaded consumer is completely opened and and a diesel engine with CAN interface. The engine
the flow to the lower loaded functions are controlled transmits engine speed ωe and current torque load
by their control valves using electronic pressure com- τactual every 20 ms.
pensation. Hence, in this control scheme the pump is All the control is handled by a central computer
operated in pure feed-forward mode. from Speedgoat with CAN and analog I/O interface.
The open and closed loop SSR have the highest The software platform used on the Speedgoat for im-
possible efficiency as no LS margin is present. plementing control is the xPC TargetTM environment
The EFM control scheme is closely related to SSR, for M ATLAB/S IMULINK by The MathWorks.
but focus on an implementation with a minimum
of electronics and sensors. The pump is operated Merlo
in pure feed-forward mode, where the swash-plate P 35.11 EVS
telehandler Frame shift
is positioned to deliver the sum of flow demands. Frame lvl.

A traditional flow-sharing valve distributes the flow. Stabilizer

The concept is covered in [6], [7] and [8]. The flow-

sharing nature of the valve prevents and unstable Stabilizer
pressure build up, as any flow oversupply is mutually Valve group pBpApB pA pB pA pB pA pB pA Diverter
pT
distributed amongst the active consumers. valves

module
Inlet

Frame lvl
Right stab/
Frame shift
Left stab/
Boom
leveling
Fork
extend
Boom
lift
pP
EFM is also investigated using a non-flow-sharing Port pressures pA,pB,
.
. . Port pressure
sensors, elec-
valve in [9] and [10]. However, secondary com- inlet pump pressure pP, tronically actuated
and tank pressure pT main spools, elec-
pensators and/or compensator position sensors are tronic pressure
compensation
added to the system in order to provide feedback for EHA valve for Servo-chamber
swash-plate control pP
stabilizing the system. pT
we tactual pA1
In the work presented in this paper, the goal is Engine

...
pA5
to obtain complete electronic control of open circuit ivc RPM we
pB1

...
systems in mobile hydraulics. The control philosophy Current Swash-plate
Actual torque tactual pB5

is to: amplifier sensor xref1...xref5 xjoy,1

CAN
Analog I/O

...
qs interface xjoy,5
Mobile
• Transfer as much as possible of the hydro- ivc,ref Swash-plate angle
computer
Joystick
mechanical control to electronic control, reduc- Current reference (MATLAB xPC)

ing the mechanical complexity to a minimum.

• Do system control with intelligent machine Figure 1: Telehandler with ELS
power management utilizing engine information.
• Have a general control structure applicable for The valve-group is equipped with pressure sensors
mobile hydraulic systems, which is designed and on all ports, and uses electronic pressure compen-
tuned using system information. sation for load-independent flow control. A fluid
temperature sensor, a pump pressure sensor and a
The control strategy moves away from the EFM tank pressure sensor are mounted at the valve-inlet.
principle of a minimum of electronic sensors, but The valve-group receives reference spool position on
moves in the direction of the ELS and open loop the CAN bus from the Speedgoat.
SSR, but with added overall system control and power Flow reference signals from the operator are re-
management. The closed-loop SSR is not included, as ceived from a CAN joystick transmitting every 20 ms.
the project is avoiding the need of position or velocity The pump is a modified Sauer-Danfoss Series 45 J-
sensors on the application’s actuators. frame 60cc variable-displacement axial-piston pump.
The work presented in this paper is a result of the The pump has been equipped with a swash-plate
first feasibility testing. Here a developed distributed position sensor, and the traditional hydro-mechanical
control structure is tested on a mobile machine with LS-control housing has been replaced with an elec-
electronic controlled open circuit components. The tronically actuated three-way valve (EHA-valve). The
control is in its feasibility stage, hence only an EHA valve is utilized for providing electronic swash-
ELS based control topology is investigated, as it is plate control, where the developed control algorithm
considered a basic and required control mode. is described in the following.
REM2009, Glasgow, UK

III S WASH -P LATE C ONTROL Spool position

3
The voice-coil actuated EHA-valve used for control- 2
Measured
Simulated
ling the pump is based on the EHA valve used in
[11] for testing electronic control of a Sauer-Danfoss 1

[mm]
Series 45 H-frame pump. The voice-coil actuator 0
gives a force proportional to the applied current. A
−1
cascade control was utilized in [11], consisting of a
current loop PI-controller, a spool positioning loop −2

with a PID-controller for the EHA valve, and a PID- −3

controller for the swash-plate positioning loop. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Actuator current Time [s] Spool position (zoomed)
In this paper, a swash-plate control algorithm not 1 1

[mm]
requiring the measurement of the EHA spool position

[A]
0 0
−1
as in [11] is developed. In [11] the EHA positioning −1 −2
0 2 4 6 2.9 3 3.1 3.2
loop serves for increasing the bandwidth of the spool Time [s] Time [s]
and to suppress the disturbance from flow forces,
which tends to close the valve. To replace the po- Figure 2: Valve dynamics and spool model.
sition feedback, the strategy is to implement a spool
position estimator. velocity ωs is obtained, which is approximately pro-
In the system setup in Fig. 1 a current amplifier portional to a flow through the EHA-valve QEHA =
with internal current controller is utilized. Note that ωs ADP LDP , as the pressure build-up in the small
the EHA valve is equipped with a spool position servo-chamber volume can be neglected. The area
sensor for identification and verification purposes. ADP denotes the servo-piston area and LDP is the
If flow-forces are omitted and the friction modeled piston’s moment-arm on the swash-plate.
as of viscous type, which is valid as a dither signal By measuring how much the flow-forces makes the
is applied to the spool, the following linear second- spool position divert from (1) for different flows, a
order model is obtained for the spool, map from QEHA to FFf has been made and imple-
xEHA
kf mented in the controller, see Fig. 3. With knowledge
ms
= µ ks
(1) about the flow-force, the controller can map FFf into
iref s2 + ms s + ms an equivalent current and use it as a feed-forward
where kf is the voice-coil force-factor, ms is the spool to decouple the effect of the flow-force. Resultantly,
mass, µ is the viscous friction coefficient and ks is only the dynamics of (1) remains, making it a valid
the equivalent spring stiffness of the two springs. estimator, except at spool endstops.
To identify the friction coefficient, a ramped Endstops are often modeled as the appearance of a
square-wave current is applied to the voice-coil with large stop force proportional to the distance the object
the spool in oil, but at zero pump pressure. The has passed its endstop xmin or xmax :
response of the valve is seen in Fig. 2, where µ in (
(1) has been identified, yielding the following second- ke (xmin − xEHA ) if xEHA < xmin
Fendstop = (2)
order characteristics: ωn = 317 rads , ζ = 6 and a DC-
ke (xmax − xEHA ) if xEHA > xmax
gain of K = 4.6 mm A .
Hence, the spool is extremely over-dampened, with The gain ke of the endstop can however easy result
a rise-time of approximately 80 ms. In comparison a in the model showing limit cycles at the endstop.
traditional LS-pump has an outer swash-plate posi- To design ke properly, the endstop function in (2)
tioning loop with a rise-time in the range of 50 ms to can be viewed as a feedback-controller, giving an
150 ms, making the EHA valve too slow. input Fendstop to control the spool to xmin or xmax
To increase the bandwidth, (1) is synthesized to when these are exceeded. Using (2) as a controller for
provide a spool feedback signal. Equation (1) is how- (1), the resulting closed loop system in (3) is found,
ever an open-loop estimator, unable to compensate for where the gain ke designed to give a proper endstop,
flow-forces. From measurements it has been seen that which is a critical dampened system (ζ = 1), as it
the flow-forces are able to pull the spool up to 1.5 mm settles the fastest with no overshoot.
away from the position estimated by (1), degrading 1
ms
µ ks 1
the value of the estimator, especially when comparing 2
s + ms s+ m ms
³ ´
xEHA = 1
s
=
to a maximum spool movement of -2 mm to 2.5 mm. s2 + µ ks 1
1+ ke ms s+ + ms ke
ms
µ ks ms
To solve this, the swash-plate position measure- s2 + m s
s+ m s

ment is used for estimating the flow-force. By dif- µ ζ=1 µ2

ferentiating the swash-plate position, the swash-plate ⇒ 2ζωn = ⇒ ke = − ks (3)
ms 4ms
REM2009, Glasgow, UK

The endstop is implemented and used in the sim- IV S YSTEM C ONTROL

ulation showed in Fig. 2. This endstop also has the
advantage that if defined by model parameters, it The over-all control topology chosen for the open
always fits the model despite parameter changes. circuit system is ELS, as pump pressure control is
A EHA controller is implemented using the es- considered a basic and required functionality. Open-
timator, along with a feed-forward part to give the loop SSR for example has its limitation if consumers
steady-state current for a given spool position. As with unknown flow consumption are present, or high-
the spool is very over-dampened a simple P-controller est loaded consumers have similar pressure levels.
can be used to increase the bandwidth without making The main ELS control consists of identifying the
the system unstable. Using (1), a proportional gain LS-pressure, add it with a margin and use it as a
kp,EHA = 1.5 mm A
has been determined, yielding a reference signal for a PID pump pressure controller
bandwidth of 100 Hz and a rise-time of 10 ms, while as seen in Fig. 4. Note that pump pressure controller
providing a damping factor of ζ ≈ 2. With this is closed around the pump pressure measured at the
setup, the EHA-controller can handle steps up to valve inlet. This gives the advantage that the con-
approximately 0.5 mm without actuator saturation. troller compensates for the pressure loss from pump
to valve-group, making a less conservative choice of
qs
LS-margin possible compared to HLS.
dx ws ADPLDP Estimate
dt flow-force FFf Map FFf The gain of the pump increases with engine speed,
Differentiate qs Map ws to QEHA to current
to obtain ws kf as the pump requires a smaller swash-plate angle to
Map xs to current Dither
kf ifeedforward
ks
signal deliver the same amount of flow. To statically cancel
Swash-plate controller
ks iFf out this non-linearity, the pump pressure controller
qs,err ws,ref xEHA,ref
-
+
kp,qs Map ws
++ + kp,EHA
iu
+
+
+
+
+ +
is designed to always send out a flow reference,
to xEHA -
p-controller
which is then mapped into a swash-plate angle using
Valve ivc,ref
linearisation Current
the engine speed, along with compensating for the
xEHA,est
Valve model
amplifier volumetric efficiency of the pump.
qs,ref pP Zero
position
EHA
valve
The flow consumed by the valve group can be
EHA controller
viewed as a disturbance to the pressure controller,
Figure 3: Swash-plate controller which has to continuously adapt to the flow consump-
tion based on a pressure error. The flow disturbance is
The developed EHA-controller is used as an inner however known in advance from the joystick inputs,
loop for the swash-plate controller. As the EHA- which gives the flow references. These can be sum-
valve is critical lapped, a natural integrator is always marized to a feed-forward signal QFF to the pump,
present from spool reference to swash-plate position. thereby decoupling the disturbance. Resultantly, the
Consequently, no integrator-term is required in the pressure control loop only has to make small flow
swash-plate controller. corrections Q̃ref to maintain the correct pump pres-
The gain from spool reference xEHA,ref to swash- sure. A similar approach was used in [12].
plate velocity ωs is non-linear dependent on the pump An extra advantage of electronic pump pressure
pressure pP and the pressure in the servo-chamber control is that high pressure protection in the system
pDP according to the orifice equation. Furthermore, is simply implemented as a saturation limit on the
a greater pressure loss is present across the spool pump pressure reference, and the standby-pressure is
when de-stroking due to the pump geometry, which determined by a the lower limit saturation. Note that
approximately gives the static relation pDP = 13 pP . As in ELS the standby pressure is separated from the
the area characteristic of the spool is known and the LS-margin setting, where these are normally equal in
pump pressure is measured, these can be used to stat- HLS due to the hydro-mechanical implementation.
ically cancel out the non-linearities by implementing The above constitutes the basics of the controller.
an inverse orifice equation as in electronic pressure The following describes how flow saturation, power
compensation by [1] and [3]. Hence, a mapping is saturation and actuator endstops are handled.
performed from a flow QEHA to a spool position.
As the flow QEHA corresponds to a swash-plate
A. Flow and Power Saturation
velocity ωs = AQDPEHA
LDP , the control input to the system
Flow saturation occurs when the operator request
actually becomes a swash-plate velocity reference more flow than the pump can deliver. In HLS sys-
ωs,ref . Thus, the last loop of the swash-plate controller tem with non-flow-sharing valves, the highest loaded
reduces to a P-controller, sending out a swash-plate consumer would be starved and the LS-margin lost.
velocity reference ωs,ref . This also emphasizes that In HLS with flow-sharing valves, the available flow
no integrator is required in this control loop. The would be mutually distributed, but with reduced LS-
complete swash-plate controller is seen in Fig. 3. margin, and hence reduced control precision.
REM2009, Glasgow, UK

pref pLS Identify LS

++ pressure Valve controller mid-range control, see e.g. [13], is often effective,
pmarg which consists of two controllers: A main controller
pA1
LS-margin controlling the output with one of the inputs, and a

...
pA5
xjoy,1 Map joystick pB1 secondary controller keeping the main controller out
input to flow

...
of saturation using the second input, i.e. keeping the
...

xjoy,5 references Qref,1 pB5

...
Power
Qref,5 main controller in mid-range.
pP and pmax
flow- Applied to this problem, the swash-plate angle is
sharing
tactual Map torque Pavail
used to control the pump pressure, such that the same
pP signal to |u|
we available
Downscale
flow- pressure controller is always active. The secondary
qs power feedfoward
from controller is then used to scale the valve-group’s flow-
we
Qavail functions
with port consumption Qest , such that the swash-plate never
Qest
pP
Calculate max
pump flow
pressures
above max saturates. As it is important to utilize the pump
kscale
Keep swash-plate non-saturated
pressure capacity, the secondary controller is set to keep the
if flowsaturated swash-plate angle between 93% to 95% of maximum
if 93% <qs/qs,max< 95%
during flow saturation, instead of having it strictly
qsat,err = 0
else qsat,err in midrange. The implemented “skewed” midrange
qs q kp
qsat,err = 94% - qs
s,max
++
S strategy is seen in Fig. 4. As the secondary controller
end 1
if powersaturated s
ki QFF is implemted as a PI, the sytems also obtains the
qsat,err = 0 Swash- ability to continuously adapt to changing the flow
end plate
end controller charteristics of valves and pump due to e.g. fluid
1 qs,err temperature.
ki QFF qs
pmax
pmax pP,ref
s ~
Qref + Qref
-+
Power-saturation might also occur, giving a risk of
pP,ref kp + qs,ref
pmin
+
-
++ + qs engine stall. To prevent this, the engine continuously
pmin we
pP
s
s+p kd
Q
transmits its current torque load to the ELS con-
PID pressure controller troller, where it is used for calculating the available
Map flow to
pP swash-plate pos. power Pavail . Using the pump pressure, the maximum
Volumetric efficiency
we
allowed pump flow without exceeding Pavail can be
calculated as Qmax = Pavail /pP . Using the same flow-
Figure 4: ELS control structure
sharing algorithm as during flow saturation, flow
references are scaled such that their sum never ex-
In the ELS system the engine speed is used for ceeds Qmax . Note that in case of simultaneous power
estimating the available flow. Hence, if the operator’s and flow saturation, the midrange-controller does not
flow request exceeds the available flow, a mutual attempt to force the swash-plate to 95% of maximum.
down scaling is performed on the references by a Finally, a non-linear filter is added to the Pavail to
flow-sharing block, such that the sum is equal to the avoid limit cycles with the engine by ramping Pavail
available flow. These scaled references are then send slowly up.
to the valve-group.
The sum of inaccuracies in estimated available B. Intelligent High Pressure Control
flow and the valve-group flow control can however When one of the telehandler’s functions, for example
still result in trying to use more flow than available, boom lift, reaches its endstop, the LS-pressure rises
thereby making the system fail to maintain the LS- until the pump-pressure limit is reached by the pump-
margin. pressure controller. In this case, the flow-feed forward
To deal with this, two control strategies can be used QFF from the joystick to the pump ceases to be valid,
for the pump pressure control during flow saturation. as the flow reference to the function in endstop is not
The first strategy is to disable the normal pressure consumed. Thus, the pump-pressure controller now
controller, force the swash-plate to maximum angle, has to remove this excessive flow by integration. To
and then control the pump pressure by adjusting the improve the performance, the functions in endstop
available flow input Qavail to the flow-sharing block. or otherwise blocked, can be identified by their port
This however requires a shift between controllers, and pressure reaching pmax . Consequently, the flow feed-
the gain from Qavail to pP is very dependent on the forward from these functions is scaled down when it
changing valve dynamics. It might also give small approaches pmax , making the flow feed-forward to the
ripples in the valve flows. pump pressure controller valid again, and improves its
The second strategy is to realize that the system performance. This is also implemented in Fig. 4.
has two control inputs, the swash-plate angle and the This control feature completes the control design,
flow-consumption of the valves Qavail , to control one which is implemented on the telehandler.
output, the pump pressure. For such control problems
REM2009, Glasgow, UK

V R ESULTS Swash−plate position

12
In Fig. 5 a test of the swash-plate control algorithm θ
s,ref
is performed, where the load is a relief valve with

[o]
10 θs
a 50 bar setting. The swash-plate is initially track-
ing a 10 Hz sine-wave, and afterwards stepped from 8
1.5 1.55 1.6 1.65 1.7 1.75 1.8
minimum to 95% of maximum stroke and back again.
Actuator Current
The destroke happens in 80 ms and the on-stroke is in 2
150 ms. Note that the on-stroke is from zero pressure. ivc,ref
1
The swash-plate tracks the sine-wave with a phase

[A]
lack of 45◦ , but with full amplitude as seen in the 0

zoomed view in Fig. 6. The plot also shows the −1

control signals and the spool position. Notice that the 1.5 1.55 1.6 1.65 1.7 1.75 1.8
Pilot spool position
estimated spool position shows the same dynamics
as the estimated, and that the swash-plate velocity 2
x
EHA
reference given out of the controller resembles the

[mm]
1 x
EHA,est
actual velocity, as the controller was designed for. 0 x
EHA,ref

−1
Swash Plate Angle 1.5 1.55 1.6 1.65 1.7 1.75 1.8
15
Swash−plate velocity
θ θ 2
s,ref s
ωs,ref
[rad/s]

0 ωs
10
[ ]

−2
o

1.5 1.55 1.6 1.65 1.7 1.75 1.8

5 Time [s]

Figure 6: Swash-plate control details

0
4 4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5 7 7.5 by the engine speed dropping to 700 RPM and the
Pump Pressure
available power Pavail going to zero. As a result, the
50 flow feed-forward is eliminated by the system and the
[bar]

swash-plate de-stroked. Afterwards the system ramps

up again as the engine recovers and Pavail rises.
0
4 4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5 7 7.5 In Fig. 8 the response time of the system is shown.
Time [s]
Swash−plate onstroke Swash−plate destroke
The system is in standby, when a joystick flow
15 15 reference is given. It is seen that the joystick flow-
10 10 reference is directly feed-forwarded to a swash-plate
[ o]

[ ]

reference, and the swash-plate has settled in 90 ms.

o

5 5
In Fig. 9 multiple consumers are operated simul-
0 0
6 6.2 6.4 6.9 7 7.1 7.2 taneously (boom, extension and fork), where the
Time [s] Time [s] requested flow exceeds the available. As seen, the
system scales down the flow references (the black
Figure 5: Swash-plate control test curves in the three topmost plots), such that the flow
feed-forward QFF is almost constant, except when
In Fig. 7 a stabilizer is operated with the engine the engine speed is increased at 8.5 s. As noticed
idling. The stabilizer is lowered to lift the machine, the swash-plate is kept at 95% of max, which is
and then retracted to its initial position. The controller approximately 16◦ . This enables the pump pressure
is configured to maintain an LS-margin of 20 bar controller to maintain the LS-margin of 20 bar at all
which is maintained, and the swash-plate tracks the time. The flow adaption graph shows the output of
reference signal. At 8 s and 16 s the stabilizers reaches the mid-range controller for scaling the valve flow,
mechanical endstop, forcing the pump pressure to such that the swash-plate is kept non-saturated.
maximum. It is seen that the flow feed-forward QFF In Fig. 10 the boom is operated, where the LS-
is reduced due to the intelligent high pressure pro- margin has been lowered to 7 bar, while still having
tection, and that the pump pressure is maintained a standby pressure of 20 bar. As seen, the system is
at its maximum pressure setting of 210 bar. At 11 s able to maintain the LS-margin and standby pressure,
the machine is almost stalling, which can be seen while providing a well-damped swash-plate control.
REM2009, Glasgow, UK

Flow feedforward 150

Joystick flow references and scaled references
20

[L/min]
100 QBoom
[L/min]

0 50
Qstab Qff
0
−20 0

[L/min]
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 −50 QFork lvl.
Swash−plate position −100
−150
150
15 θs,ref θs

[L/min]
100 QExt.
50
10
0
[o]

120
Flow feed−forward
Q Q Q Q
5 90 ff Boom Fork lvl. Ext.

[L/min]
60
0 30
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 0
Power management 4 6 8 10 12 14
18
Swash−plate position
Pavail Pused
[kW]

20 12
θs,ref θs

[o]
6
0 0
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 4 6 8 10 12 14
Engine speed Swash−plate position (zoomed view)
18
1200
16
[o]
[RPM]

1000 14
12
800 4 6 8 10 12 14
600 1.05
Flow adaption
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
[−]

Pressures 1
250 0.97
4 6 8 10 12 14
pPref
Engine speed
[RPM]

pP 1600
200
pB 1400
1200
pA 4 6 8 10 12 14
150 120
Pressures
[bar]

100 pPref pP pLS

100 80
[bar]

60

50 40

20

0
0 4 6 8 10 12 14
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 Time [s]
Time [s]

Figure 9: Test of flow-sharing

Figure 7: Stabilizer trajectory with engine idling

Flow reference and swash−plate position.

VI D ISCUSSION
20
θs,ref
The developed swash-plate controller for actuation of
15 θs
a pump using a three-way valve shows a bandwidth
[ o] and [L/min]

Qstab
of at least 10 Hz, validating the control concept. This
10
Q
shows that it is possible to replace the spool position
ff
sensor of the EHA valve with an estimator, when the
5 flow-forces are decoupled based on the swash-plate
measurement for estimating flow through the valve.
0
1.35 1.4 1.45 1.5 1.55 1.6
Based on the system performance it is concluded that
Time [s] the obtained bandwidth, and on-stroke and de-stroke
times of the electronic controlled pump are sufficient.
Figure 8: System response time, a zoomed view of The developed open circuit controller shows that
Fig. 7 at time 1.35 s it is possible to move features as pressure control,
REM2009, Glasgow, UK

Boom flow reference R EFERENCES

100
[L/min]

0 [1] H. Esders. Elektrohydraulisches Load Sensing für

−100 Mobile Anwendungen. PhD thesis, Teachnischen
18
Swash−plate position Universität Braunschweig, Germany, 1995.
θs,ref [2] A. Langen. Experimentelle und Analytischen
12
Untersuchungen an Vergesteuerten Hydraulisch-
[o]

θ
s
6 Mechanischen und Elektro-Hydraulischen
0 Pumpenregulungen. PhD thesis, Rheinisch-
4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Pressures Westälishen Technischen Hochschule Aachen,
Germany, 1986.
p
150
Pref [3] B.K. Nielsen. Controller Development for a Sep-
pP
arate Meter-In Separate Meter-Out Fluid Power
pLS
Valve for Mobile Applications. PhD thesis, Aal-
[bar]

100
borg University, Denmark, 2005.
50 [4] B. Zähe. Energiesparende Schaltungen
Hydraulischer Antrieb mit Veränderlichem
0 Versorgungsdruck und ihre Regelung. PhD
4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Time [s]
thesis, Rheinisch-Westfälischen Technischen
Hockschule Aachen, Germany, 1993.
Figure 10: Boom trajectory with 7 bar LS-margin [5] H. Jongebloed, D. Büren, U. Völkel and C. Jabs.
Energy-Saving Valve System for Mobile Appli-
flow-sharing, anti-stall, power sharing and maximum cations - Load-Control-System (LCS). 4th Inter-
pressure limitation from hydro-mechanical control to national Fluid Power Conference, Dresden, Vol.2,
electronic control, thereby also limiting the mechan- 2004.
ical complexity of the system. [6] C. Latour. Electrohydraulic Flow Matching: The
The developed control structure proves the effec- next generation of load-sensing controls. Off
tiveness of an ELS control topology with a flow Highway March, 2007.
feed-forward from the joystick to the pump. This [7] R. Finzel and S. Helduser. Energy-Efficient
reduces the pump pressure controller to making small Electro-Hydraulic Control Systems for Mo-
adjustment to the swash-plate in-order to maintain the bile Machinery/Flow Matching. 6th International
desired pump pressure. The idea of eliminating the Fluid Power Conference, Dresden, 2008.
flow feed-forward from consumers reaching pressure [8] M. Djurovic and S. Helduser. Elektrohydraulis-
limitation has also been shown to be a valid solution ches Load-Sensing. Ölhydraulik und Pneumatik,
for maintaining the integrity of the flow feed-forward. 11, 2004.
To elegantly handle flow-saturation and increase [9] M. Djurovic and S. Helduser. New control strate-
the robustness, the skewed-midrange topology used gies for electrohydraulic load-sensing. Power
during flow saturation has been validated. It ensures Transmission and Motion Control (PTMC), 2004.
that the swash-plate never saturates, and that 93%- [10] K. Mettälä, M. Djurovic, G. Keuper and
95% of maximum flow capacity is alway utilized dur- P. Stachnik. Intelligent Oil Flow Management
ing flow-sharing. As a result, the same pump pressure with EFM: The Potentials of Electrohydraulic
controller is aways operational, thereby ensuring that Flow Matching in Tractor Hydraulics. The Tenth
the LS-margin is always maintained, and makes the Scandinavian International Conference on Fluid
system continuously adapt to the flow characteristic Power, SICFP’07, Tampere, Finland, 2007.
of the pump and valves. [11] M.R. Hansen, T.O. Andersen, H.C. Pedersen
Regarding the implemented control, one of the and F. Conrad. Feasibility Study of Electronic
overall results of the paper is the usefulness of can- Load Sensing Concept for Hydraulic Variable
celing out non-linearities using system information to Displacement Pump. , REM2006, KTH, Stock-
create appropriate coordinate shifts, for example from holm, Sweden, 2006.
flow references to spool positions. [12] H.C. Pedersen. Automated Hydraulic System
Finally, the results show that using ELS the system Design and Power Management in Mobile Ap-
can operated with an LS-margin down to 7 bar, while plications. PhD thesis, Aalborg University, Den-
having a standby-pressure setting of 20 bar. mark, 2007
The generality of the developed control structure [13] K.J. Åström and T. Hägglung. Advanced PID
makes it reasonable to expect that it is applicable for Control. ISBN/ID no. 978-1-55617-942-6, ISA,
other mobile hydraulic application than a telehandler. 2006.