An energy efficient pneumatic-electrical system and control strategy development

Pneumatic actuators are widely used in industry and many other applications, whereas low energy efficiency has been recognized as a critical drawback compared with corresponding hydraulic and electrical actuators. The paper presents a new hybrid pneumatic-electrical system aiming at energy efficiency improvement by recovering exhaust air energy from pneumatic actuator outlets to generate electricity. A closed-loop control strategy is proved to be essential to ensure the exhaust energy recovery work properly and to maintain existed actuator operations simultaneously. The whole system mathematical model and the simulation results are presented in the paper. The laboratory test results are also given. The simulation and experimental study demonstrate that the designed system with the proposed control strategy can operate at the relative higher energy efficiency state for the specified working conditions.