Valve characterization to implement feed-forward control of hydraulically actuated joints

This thesis characterizes the flow behavior of a Hydraforce SP08-47CL valve given a specific pulse-width modulation (pwm) duty cycle. With a description of valve behavior, a feed-forward term can be implemented in the positional control loop of a hydraulically actuated robotic prototype. In order to isolate valve behavior, a test bed apparatus consisting of three separate hydraulic cylinders was constructed to decouple joint movement, and multiple tests were conducted, recording cylinder velocities given a constant pwm signal at a system pressure of 3.45MPa. After theoretically justifying the empirical results, a quadratic and bi-linear curve fit to the data provided a practical solution to an otherwise computationally expensive problem.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2008

Author dc:creator

• Carey, Abby (Abby M.)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Wai K. Cheng and Andreas Hofmann.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/45763

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/45763