This thesis deals with the Electrohydraulic Power Steering system for road vehicles, using electronic pressure control valves. With an ever increasing demand for safer vehicles and fewer traffic accidents, steering-related active safety functions are becoming more common in modern vehicles. Future road vehicles will also evolve towards autonomous vehicles, with several safety, environmental and financial benefits. A key component in realising such solutions is active steering. The power steering system was initially developed to ease the driver's workload by assisting in turning the wheels. This is traditionally done through a passive open-centre hydraulic system and heavy trucks must still rely on fluid power, due to the heavy work forces. Since the purpose of the original system is to control the assistive pressure, one way would be to use proportional pressure control valves. Since these are electronically controlled, active steering is possible and with closed-centre, energy efficiency can be significantly improved on. In this work, such a system is analysed in detail with the purpose of investigating the possible use of the system for Boost curve control and position control for autonomous driving. Commercially available valves are investigated since they provide an attractive solution. A model-based approach is adopted, where simulation of the system is an important tool. Another important tool is hardware-in-the-loop simulation. A test rig of an electrohydraulic power steering system, is developed. This work has shown how proportional pressure control valves can be used for Boost curve control and position control and what implications this has on a system level. As it turns out, the valves add a great deal of time lag and with the high gain from the Boost curve, this creates a control challenge. The problem can be handled by tuning the Boost gain, pressure response and damping and has been effectively shown through simulation and experiments. For position control, there is greater freedom to design the controller to fit the system. The pressure response can be made fast enough for this case and the time lag is much less critical.

There are a myriad of mathematical problems that cannot be solved using traditional methods. The development of fuzzy expert systems has provided new opportunities for problem-solving amidst uncertainties. Fuzzy Systems: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications is a comprehensive reference source on the latest scholarly research and developments in fuzzy rule-based methods and examines both theoretical foundations and real-world utilization of these logic sets. Featuring a range of extensive coverage across innovative topics, such as fuzzy logic, rule-based systems, and fuzzy analysis, this is an essential publication for scientists, doctors, engineers, physicians, and researchers interested in emerging perspectives and uses of fuzzy systems in various sectors.

This book covers the whole range of today’s technology for pneumatic drives. It details drives for factory automation and automotive applications as well as describes the technology for the process industry like positioners or spring-and-diaphragm. In addition, the book examines several control strategies like binary mode cylinder drives or position controlled drives and computer aided analysis of complex systems.

HYDRAULIC FLUID POWER LEARN MORE ABOUT HYDRAULIC TECHNOLOGY IN HYDRAULIC SYSTEMS DESIGN WITH THIS COMPREHENSIVE RESOURCE Hydraulic Fluid Power provides readers with an original approach to hydraulic technology education that focuses on the design of complete hydraulic systems. Accomplished authors and researchers Andrea Vacca and Germano Franzoni begin by describing the foundational principles of hydraulics and the basic physical components of hydraulics systems. They go on to walk readers through the most practical and useful system concepts for controlling hydraulic functions in modern, state-of-the-art systems. Written in an approachable and accessible style, the book’s concepts are classified, analyzed, presented, and compared on a system level. The book also provides readers with the basic and advanced tools required to understand how hydraulic circuit design affects the operation of the equipment in which it’s found, focusing on the energy performance and control features of each design architecture. Readers will also learn how to choose the best design solution for any application. Readers of Hydraulic Fluid Power will benefit from: Approaching hydraulic fluid power concepts from an “outside-in” perspective, emphasizing a problem-solving orientation Abundant numerical examples and end-of-chapter problems designed to aid the reader in learning and retaining the material A balance between academic and practical content derived from the authors’ experience in both academia and industry Strong coverage of the fundamentals of hydraulic systems, including the equations and properties of hydraulic fluids Hydraulic Fluid Power is perfect for undergraduate and graduate students of mechanical, agricultural, and aerospace engineering, as well as engineers designing hydraulic components, mobile machineries, or industrial systems.

In industrial engineering and manufacturing, control of individual processes and systems is crucial to developing a quality final product. Rapid developments in technology are pioneering new techniques of research in control and automation with multi-disciplinary applications in electrical, electronic, chemical, mechanical, aerospace, and instrumentation engineering. The Handbook of Research on Advanced Intelligent Control Engineering and Automation presents the latest research into intelligent control technologies with the goal of advancing knowledge and applications in various domains. This text will serve as a reference book for scientists, engineers, and researchers, as it features many applications of new computational and mathematical tools for solving complicated problems of mathematical modeling, simulation, and control.

This exciting reference text is concerned with fluid power control. It is an ideal reference for the practising engineer and a textbook for advanced courses in fluid power control. In applications in which large forces and/or torques are required, often with a fast response time, oil-hydraulic control systems are essential. They excel in environmentally difficult applications because the drive part can be designed with no electrical components and they almost always have a more competitive power/weight ratio compared to electrically actuated systems. Fluid power systems have the capability to control several parameters, such as pressure, speed, position, and so on, to a high degree of accuracy at high power levels. In practice there are many exciting challenges facing the fluid power engineer, who now must preferably have a broad skill set.