A novel architecture of electro-hydrostatic actuator with digital distribution

To address the flow imbalance rapidly of the asymmetric Electro-Hydrostatic Actuator (EHA), this paper presents a novel architecture of asymmetric EHA with the Digital Distribution (EHA-DD). It also improves the flow nonlinearity and control accuracy of the pump, especially in the low-speed condition. The digital distribution with two High-Speed on–off Valves (HSVs) not only balances flow instead of the check valves, but also replaces the pump at the low-speed to control output flow by adjusting the PWM signal. The pump and HSVs are the crucial components to control flow output. Firstly, the flow calculation models of the pump and the duty ratio inversed model of the HSV are obtained through experimental tests and the identification method. To get the control input signal for the required flow, the pump speed and PWM duty ratio for the HSVs are inversed to compensate for flow output. Further, a multimode digital flow distribution control method based on pump speed, mainly including the pump-controlled mode for large flow demand and valve-controlled mode for little flow demand, is proposed to control the accurate flow output actively. The step extension experiments based on the flow calculation models are conducted on the EHA-DD prototype under elastic, opposite varying load. The results demonstrate that the EHA-DD realizes little position error by accurate flow control, and it is also beneficial to improve the service life of the pump.