Measurement Based Validation of an Electro-Pneumatic Gearbox Actuator

Abstract

The objective of the research is to analyze the behavior of the developed electro-pneumatic actuator model and compare it to the behavior of the real system. The actuator achieves the requested gear changes by moving the two pistons inside the cylinder and it is operated by three-way two-position solenoid valves. Since not all model parameters are exactly known, such as contraction coefficients and friction parameters, they can be estimated based on literature then they can be further tuned to minimize the error of the simulation. The developed nonlinear model is capable of describing the dynamic behavior of the gearbox actuator, thus it can be used to analyze the effects of constructional modifications and it can serve as Model in the Loop (MIL) environment for controller testing.