Torque Observer-Based Control of Self-Energizing Clutch Actuator for Dual Clutch Transmission

Using an adaptive sliding mode control scheme based on the dual clutch torque observer, this brief proposes a novel strategy to control the clutch engagement for the dual clutch transmission (DCT) equipped with the self-energizing clutch actuator. The contribution of this brief is twofold. A sliding mode tracking controller for the actuator motor position is developed by using the information provided by the torque observer designed to estimate the torque transferred through each clutch of the DCT. Then, the adaptive strategy to actively alter the target position command to compensate for the model uncertainty or disturbance is proposed. The actuator position tracking control accuracy improvement attained by using the adaptive sliding mode controller and, most crucially, the ability for the integrated controller to cope with the system disturbance are verified in an integrated manner via actual experiments using the driveline test bench.