Position control of a cylinder system using ER valve actuators

This paper presents position control of cylinder system using electro-rheological(ER) valve actuators. Following the identification of field-dependent Bingham characteristics of an ER fluid, a single d.o.f.(degree of freedom) double-rod cylinder system is constructed by adopting bridge-circuit-controlled ER valve actuators. The governing equation of the motion is derived followed by the design of a neural network feedback controller. The controller is then experimentally realized to achieve the position tracking control of the system. The single d.o.f. cylinder is extended to a 3 d.o.f. to provide more practical feasibility. The dynamic model of the 3 d.o.f. closed-loop cylinder system is established and a sliding mode controller is formulated by taking into account for parameter uncertainties. The controller is then implemented and position tracking control responses are presented.