Optimization-Driven Controller Design for a High-Performance Electro-Hydrostatic Asymmetric Actuator Operating in All Quadrants

Abstract This paper presents an optimization-driven controller design for smooth and accurate position control of a single-rod electrohydrostatic actuator. The design approach uses logically guided iterative runs of the electrohydrostatic actuator to determine the optimal gain and poles' locations of a low-bandwidth controller. The optimization algorithm used in the paper is the globalized bounded Nelder–Mead algorithm with deterministic restarts for improved globalization and lower numerical cost. The design also incorporates a prefilter to ensure minimum jerk in the system's step input response in the beginning and while approaching steady-state. The step response of the filter is a seventh-deg polynomial curve that ensures the minimum change in acceleration in both states. Experimental results reveal that the addition of the proposed prefilter reduces jerk in the system by up to 90%. Results also indicate that the controller performs very well in all quadrants with external load uncertainty of up to 367 kg and thus proves the effectiveness of the design approach.