Session: Controls 2

Paper Number: 111819

111819 - Human-in-the-Loop Motion Control of a Two-DOF Hydraulic Backhoe Powered by the Hybrid Hydraulic Electric Architecture (Hhea) 

Off-highway mobile machines typically rely on hydraulics for actuation, resulting in poor energy efficiency. To overcome this limitation and leverage the benefits of electrification, a new architecture called the Hybrid Hydraulic-Electric Architecture (HHEA) has been proposed. The HHEA is designed to increase efficiency, reduce the size and cost of electrical components, and maintain control performance by utilizing a set of common pressure rails to transmit the majority of the power via the power-dense hydraulics and by modulating that power with small electric components for precise control. 

A large part of utility for off-road vehicles depends on their ability to perform tasks dexterously and exactly as commanded by the operator. The architecture presents a unique challenge to smooth and precise motion control due to the necessity of switching between discrete pressure rails. To address this issue, a control strategy consisting of a backstepping nominal control and least norm transition control has been developed and tested on a 1-DOF testbed (AIM2020, FPMC 2021) where the known trajectory was tracked precisely. This paper presents the implementation of the HHEA motion control strategy on a 2-DOF backhoe operated by a human operator. The boom and stick actuators of the backhoe arm are retrofitted with HHEA and a 2 degree of freedom joystick is used to control the boom and stick motion. Unlike previous studies, the duty cycle is unknown and the decision to change pressure rails are taken in real-time. The efficacy of the motion control strategy is validated experimentally.

Presenting Author: Arpan Chatterjee University of Minnesota

Presenting Author Biography: Arpan is a doctoral candidate at University of Minnesota in Mechanical Engineering department. His interests lies in control system design for various systems