This paper presents a detailed design procedure of a linear torque controller for an in-house developed lab-scale powertrain emulator as a case study. This set-up was developed for the validation of new developments in the research field of virtual torque sensing, and thus requires a decent torque tracking performance in order to simulate real drivetrain dynamics sufficiently accurate. The different design steps of the proposed control solution comprise the selection of an appropriate control configuration, experiment and excitation signal design, identification of a linear time-invariant model of the dynamics in the working range of interest, the design of a feedback controller by a closed-loop shaping approach that is mathematically formulated as a mixed-sensitivity H∞ optimization problem, and an inverse-based feedforward controller design using parametric and non-parametric closed-loop models. Experimental results demonstrate the obtained torque tracking performance for torque profiles that are considered as relevant for virtual sensing validation purposes. In particular, the tracking performance of periodic torque profiles are thoroughly validated, as they commonly appear in mechanical drivetrains. Several more advanced techniques that potentially yield an improved performance, for example by explicitly accounting for the periodicity of the input, are listed and are planned to be investigated in the future.


Control Design for an Emulator of Mechatronic Powertrain Dynamics: A Case Study

Division / Sponsors: 
Dynamic Systems & Control (DSCD)

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/DSCC/DSCC2020/volume/84270

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