Position control of proportional electro-hydraulic valves: An Embedded Model Control solution

Hierarchical control architecture is a common to hydraulic systems. This paper outlines the application of a modelbased control referred to as Embedded Model Control for implementing the hierarchical position control of an electro-hydraulic proportional valve. The hierarchy consists of two loops: the inner loop is the solenoid current regulator with a closed loop bandwidth close to 1 kHz. The outer loop is a position tracking control, in charge of the spool accurate positioning with respect to the valve openings. The paper focuses on the outer position loop. Analysis and synthesis are presented as well as experimental results obtained from a test rig provided by the valve manufacturer.