Digital current regulator for proportional electro-hydraulic valves featuring unknown disturbance rejection

Solenoid current regulation is well-known and standard in any proportional electro-hydraulic valve. The goal is to provide a wide-band transfer function from the reference to the measured current, thus making the solenoid a fast and ideal force actuator within the limits of the power supplier. The supplier is usually a Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) amplifier fixing the voltage bound and the Nyquist frequency of the regulator. Typical analogue regulators include three main terms: a feedforward channel, a proportional feedback channel and the electromotive force compensation. The latter compensation may be also accomplished by integrative feedback. Here the problem is faced through a model-based design (Embedded Model Control), on the basis of a wide-band embedded model of the solenoid which includes the effect of eddy currents. To this end model parameters must be identified. The embedded model includes a stochastic disturbance dynamics capable of estimating and correcting the electromotive contribution together with the model parametric uncertainty, variability and state dependence. The embedded model which is fed by the measured current and the supplied voltage becomes a state predictor of the controllable and disturbance dynamics. The control law combines a reference generator, state feedback and disturbance rejection to dispatch the PWM with the appropriate duty cycle. Modeling, identification and control design are outlined together with experimental result. Comparison with an existing analogue regulator is also provided.