High-Accuracy Force Control With Nonlinear Feedforward Compensation for a Hydraulic Drive Unit

The hydraulic drive unit (HDU) applied in a hydraulic drive legged robot joints adopts an outer loop impedance control method based on the hydraulic control’s inner loop during motion so that the entire system obtains certain compliance characteristics. There are two types of inner loops, namely, the position closed loop control and the force closed loop control; this paper studies a system in which the inner loop is a force closed loop control system and improves its accuracy in order to provide references for the outer loop impedance control. Therefore, designing a compensation method that improves the inner loop force control’s accuracy has important research significance. In view of the above research significance, this paper first deduces a mathematical model for the force closed loop control and simplifies the sixth-order mathematical model to find the transfer function of each part. Second, combined with influence factors, such as pressure-flow nonlinearity, friction nonlinearity, and complex and variable loads on the system, the feedforward compensation controller of the force control input is derived. Considering the practical application in engineering, the controller order is reduced, and a partial compensation is achieved. Finally, on the HDU performance test platform, the force control performance is quantitatively analyzed by inputting typical signals and random signals. The experimental results show that the feedforward compensation controller can greatly improve the system force control performance with different input signals. The above research results can be combined with a corresponding disturbance rejection strategy for the force control system to provide an important reference and experimental basis for the hydraulic inner loop control strategy of force-based impedance.