Enhancing pressure control of low-friction pneumatic actuator with eddy current damper via valve dead-zone compensation

This article addresses the high-performance pressure control of a pneumatic actuator that incorporates an air-bearing piston and an eddy current damper (ECD). After optimizing the pneumatic actuator, achieving precise pressure control relies on maintaining an accurate and stable airflow through the control valve. A terminal sliding mode adaptive control method (TSMAC) is proposed, proficiently integrating considerations for dead zone nonlinearities in the proportional valve and the effects of unmodeled disturbances in the pneumatic actuator. Using the opening area of the proportional valve as the input to the pneumatic system greatly simplifies the control process and reduces the workload required for valve parameter calibration. The Lyapunov-based stability analysis demonstrates that excellent asymptotic output tracking can be achieved with low steady-state error simply by knowing the boundaries of the valve opening area. The control effect of the proposed control strategy is compared with an adaptive backstepping sliding mode control method based on a linearly fitted proportional valve model on an established constant pressure control test bench. Experimental results under various loads and operating conditions illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.