Nonlinear control of a novel indexing valve plate pump

Pressure control of a novel indexing variable displacement pump used in large earth moving machinery is investigated. It is shown that modeling insights are useful in the control design process. For such a pump, viable reduced order dynamic models have been developed in previous research. Utilizing insights into the dynamics and into the limitation on control gains, effective control design can be developed. Three control design are reported for this nonlinear system, a gain scheduled proportional control scheme, a scheduled H_∞ design, and a nonlinear control design. Their characteristics and effectiveness are illustrated using simulations