Output Feedback Control for Active Suspension Electro-Hydraulic Actuator Systems With a Novel Sampled-Data Nonlinear Extended State Observer

In this paper, an output feedback controller based on a novel sampled-data nonlinear extended state observer (SDNLESO) is proposed for an active suspension electro-hydraulic actuator (ASEHA) system to address the heavy nonlinearities, model uncertainties and sampled-data behavior. The designed controller only requires little prior knowledge about the controlled system for the purpose of position tracking. The SDNLESO, integrating a novel nonlinear extended state observer and an output predictor, is developed to simultaneously and continuously estimate the unmeasurable states and total disturbance for an error dynamic system rather than the original ASEHA system, where the actual discrete displacement tracking error between measurement output and the reference signal serves as the observer input. Then, a compensated controller is synthesized based on the obtained estimates, which is robust against the matched and mismatched disturbances of the system while being able to ensure an expected transient tracking performance and final tracking accuracy. By constructing weighted error system and using the geometric homogeneity theory, the SDNLESO convergence is proven, while the maximum allowable sampling period is derived theoretically for guiding the selection of the actual sampling interval. Moreover, the closed-loop system stability and the tracking error exponential convergence are guaranteed within the Lyapunov framework. Finally, a number of practical experiments are carried out on the ASEHA system test platform. The results show that the proposed control method is applicable and valid for nonlinear and uncertain ASEHA system despite the existence of a large actuator area ratio.