Is the future of fluid power digital?

This article presents digital fluid power as a new branch of fluid power which offers high potential for innovative solutions. The variety of digital concepts is quite large and digital concepts have long been successfully applied in low-power applications. Research and development is now becoming more intensive, being undertaken by several research groups and also more and more in industry. First applications will be brought to industry soon. A successful application requires new components, a sound understanding of system and new control principles.