LPV-based modeling of a floating piston pneumatic actuator

Pneumatic actuators are known to be nonlinear, hence in most applications, nonlinear equations are used to describe their behavior. However, they can also be formulated as LPV systems. The paper presents the LPV model of a solenoid valve and a pneumatic cylinder, then combines the two models through Bernoulli’s equation to describe the model of the actuator. The models presented are validated against the nonlinear model of the system. The results show that the simplified LPV models have reduced the simulation time significantly and the models can easily be adapted to actuators with different layouts.