Electro-hydraulic velocity and position control based on independent metering valve control in mobile construction equipment

Abstract Independent metering valve control system can overcome the shortcomings of the traditional four-side linkage valve controlled system, such as poor controllability and large energy consumption, especially under the overrunning load condition. Current researches mainly focus on the velocity, pressure and energy consumption characteristics of the hydraulic system. However, with the intelligent development of mobile machinery and the continuous improvement of work quality requirements, each actuator should not only meet the velocity and output force requirements, but also achieve high positioning accuracy. Therefore, according to the independent metering valve control system and pump-valve hybrid control principle, a velocity and position combined control strategy based on mode switching is proposed to control the boom and arm of hydraulic excavator. Then, a mechanical-hydraulic co-simulation model including the whole hydraulic excavator is established to verify the strategy, predict control characteristics and determine the controller parameters. Furthermore, a test prototype based on the above principle is established, and the boom and arm operating characteristics with the proposed strategy are tested and analyzed. The results show that the hydraulic cylinders can move smoothly along the expected trajectory under the premise of low energy consumption. The operate velocity fluctuation is small and the positioning error to the target position is about 1 mm. Due to the boom cylinder and arm cylinder in the research are separately typical two and four quadrants working actuators, the research work has universal significance to smooth, high-precision and low energy consumption automation operation of various types of mobile machineries.