Control and Estimation of Automotive Powertrains with Backlash

In automotive powertrains, backlash causes problems with vehicle driveability, specifically at so called tip-in and tip-out maneuvers. These maneuvers may trigger phenomena known in the automotive industry as shunt and shuffle , which are partially caused by the backlash. These phenomena are considered difficult to cope with, and until recently, only relatively simple controllers have been used to reduce the discomfort. Also, the tuning of these controllers is made quite subjectively. A number of approaches to the control of systems with backlash are reported in the literature. Most of these approaches assume another system structure around the backlash than what is the case in automotive powertrains. Very few approaches are therefore directly applicable to the control of automotive powertrains. The first part of this thesis gives an overview of available control strategies for backlash control. The strategies can be divided into active and passive strategies, depending on the way the controller handles the backlash. An active controller compensates the backlash nonlinearity by a more active control signal, while the passive controller becomes more cautious when the backlash gap is entered. Some of the strategies, e.g. switched linear controllers and model predictive controllers, are evaluated in the powertrain application by means of simulation. The results show that active nonlinear controllers have a potential for improved backlash control. However, the robustness of these controllers needs further investigation. Open-loop optimal control is used in this thesis as a way to find theoretical limits on backlash compensation performance. High-performance controllers for backlash compensation require high-quality measurements of the current state of the powertrain. Information about the size of the backlash is also needed. These problems are addressed in the second part of this thesis. Two nonlinear estimators based on Kalman filtering theory have been developed, one for state estimation and one for the estimation of backlash size. Simulation and experimental results show that the resulting estimates are of high quality.

[1]  Per-Olof Gutman,et al.  New models for backlash and gear play , 1997 .

[2]  P. Grieder,et al.  Low complexity control of piecewise affine systems with stability guarantee , 2004, Proceedings of the 2004 American Control Conference.

[3]  Y. Nakayama,et al.  A torque control method of three-inertia torsional system with backlash , 2000, 6th International Workshop on Advanced Motion Control. Proceedings (Cat. No.00TH8494).

[4]  Adam Lagerberg,et al.  Backlash gap position estimation in automotive powertrains , 2003, 2003 European Control Conference (ECC).

[5]  Adam Lagerberg.  Evaluation of Control Strategies for Automotive Powertrains with Backlash , 2002 .

[6]  P. Gill,et al.  User's Guide for SOL/NPSOL: A Fortran Package for Nonlinear Programming. , 1983 .

[7]  Mattias Nordin.  Nonlinear backlash compensation for speed controlled elastic systems , 2000 .

[8]  Bernard Friedland,et al.  Feedback control of systems with parasitic effects , 1997, Proceedings of the 1997 American Control Conference (Cat. No.97CH36041).

[9]  Gang Tao.  Hybrid control of sandwich systems with nonsmooth nonlinearities , 1999 .

[10]  Per-Olof Gutman,et al.  New Models and Identification Methods for Backlash and Gear Play , 2001 .

[11]  Michael A. Saunders,et al.  User’s Guide For Snopt Version 6, A Fortran Package for Large-Scale Nonlinear Programming∗ , 2002 .

[12]  Oded Yaniv,et al.  Reduction of Limit Cycle Amplitude in the Presence of Backlash , 1999 .

[13]  Yoichi Hori,et al.  Basic consideration of vibration suppression and disturbance rejection control of multi-inertia system using SFLAC (state feedback and load acceleration control) , 1993 .

[14]  Stefan Pischinger,et al.  A Model Based Predictive Attempt to Control Boost Pressure and EGR-Rate in a Heavy Duty Diesel Engine , 2004 .

[15]  Valery D Yurkevich.  Design of sampled-data control systems , 2004 .

[16]  K. V. Hebbale,et al.  A Speed and Acceleration Estimation Algorithm for Powertrain Control , 1991, 1991 American Control Conference.

[17]  Seong Hwan Kim,et al.  Speed estimation of an IM using Kalman filter algorithm at ultra-low speed region , 1997, 1997 IEEE International Electric Machines and Drives Conference Record.

[18]  Niclas Persson,et al.  Event Based Sampling with Application to Spectral Estimation , 2002 .

[19]  Geir Hovland,et al.  Nonlinear identification of backlash in robot transmissions , 2002 .

[20]  M. Odai,et al.  Speed control of 2-inertia system with gear backlash using gear torque compensator , 1998, AMC'98 - Coimbra. 1998 5th International Workshop on Advanced Motion Control. Proceedings (Cat. No.98TH8354).

[21]  Bo Egardt,et al.  Estimation of Backlash in Automotive Powertrains, An Experimental Validation , 2004 .

[22]  Gang Tao,et al.  Optimal control of tracking systems with backlash and flexibility , 1997, Proceedings of the 36th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control.

[23]  Adam Lagerberg.  Open-loop optimal control of a backlash traverse , 2004 .

[24]  D. Mayne,et al.  Optimal control of constrained, piecewise affine systems with bounded disturbances , 2002, Proceedings of the 41st IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, 2002..

[25]  Mato Baotic,et al.  Hybrid Systems Modeling and Control , 2003, Eur. J. Control.

[26]  Kenneth Holmström,et al.  User's Guide for Tomlab v3.2.1 , 2002 .

[27]  Stephan Terwen,et al.  Predictive Powertrain Control for Heavy Duty Trucks , 2004 .

[28]  Michael A. Saunders,et al.  User''s guide for NPSOL (Ver-sion 4.0): A FORTRAN package for nonlinear programming , 1984 .

[29]  Adam Lagerberg,et al.  A literature survey on control of automotive powertrains with backlash , 2001 .

[30]  David Q. Mayne,et al.  Constrained model predictive control: Stability and optimality , 2000, Autom..

[31]  Mattias Nordin,et al.  Controlling mechanical systems with backlash - a survey , 2002, Autom..

[32]  Michael A. Saunders,et al.  USER’S GUIDE FOR SNOPT 5.3: A FORTRAN PACKAGE FOR LARGE-SCALE NONLINEAR PROGRAMMING , 2002 .

[33]  Jan M. Maciejowski,et al.  Predictive control : with constraints , 2002 .

[34]  Gang Tao,et al.  Adaptive Control of Systems with Actuator and Sensor Nonlinearities , 1996 .

[35]  Anil V. Rao,et al.  Practical Methods for Optimal Control Using Nonlinear Programming , 1987 .

[36]  Li-Chen Fu,et al.  Nonlinear adaptive control for manipulator system with gear backlash , 1996, Proceedings of 35th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control.

[37]  Stephan Terwen,et al.  Predictive Powertrain Control for Hybrid Electric Vehicles , 2004 .

[38]  A. Jazwinski.  Stochastic Processes and Filtering Theory , 1970 .

[39]  Bo Egardt,et al.  Estimation of backlash with application to automotive powertrains , 2003, 42nd IEEE International Conference on Decision and Control (IEEE Cat. No.03CH37475).

[40]  Jonas Fredriksson,et al.  Powertrain Control for Active Damping of Driveline Oscillations , 2002 .

[41]  Mato Baotic,et al.  Multi-Parametric Toolbox (MPT) , 2004, HSCC.