7th Mediterranean Conference on Embedded Computing
Embedded electrohydraulic controller with digital
valve actuation for steering of heavy duty machines
Alexander Mitov Jordan Kralev, IEEE Member
dept. Hydroaerodynamics and dept. Systems and Control
Hydraulic machines Technical University of Sofia
Technical University of Sofia Sofia, Bulgaria
Sofia, Bulgaria jkralev@tu-sofia.bg
alexander_mitov@mail.bg
Abstract— The paper investigates an embedded system for
automatic electrohydraulic steering of heavy duty machines
(loaders, construction machines). Based on two identified
nonlinear models of the steering unit two correspondent sets of
PI regulator parameters are calculated with iterative
optimization procedure in MATLAB/Simulink environment.
Calculated regulator parameters are evaluated on a physical test
bench composed of steering cylinder, hydraulic steering unit with
integrated digital valve actuation and industrial class
microcontroller. Achieved performance of position tracking
defends digital valve technology as a low cost alternative to
classical spool/sleeve based steering.
Keywords - electrohydraulic control, embedded system design,
nonlinear modelling, controller design
I. INTRODUCTION
The concept of non-road mobile machine refers to vehicles
operating mostly outside public roads. Examples of such
machines are all road construction, materials handling,
agriculture and other industrial vehicles. Considerable weight
and power of non-road mobile machines as well as their
relatively low speed increase steering loads on their wheels.
Hence it is infeasible to use a conventional steering system
similar to one employed in automobiles. Steering system of a
mobile machine works on hydrostatic principle. There is no
rigid mechanical linkage from the steering wheel to the main
steering axle. The steering force is transmitted by the means of
a hydraulic energy through a compressible fluid. Hydraulically
powered steering systems are reliable, achieve fast response
times, have relatively compact dimensions and they can be
installed only on vehicles with maximum speed under 60 km/h
[1].
A key element in steering system for non-road mobile
machine is the hydrostatic steering unit (HSU) which has
evolved technologically for several decades. Recently the
industry has begun to introduce a digital (switching)
electrohydraulic valve mechanism into steering units so called
electro-HSU (EHSU). Such capabilities for electrohydraulic
energy conversion connect standard HSU to IoT (internet of
things) framework. New HSU features emerge such as remote
MECO’2018, Budva, Montenegro
Ilcho Angelov
dept. Hydroaerodynamics and
Hydraulic machines
Technical University of Sofia
Sofia, Bulgaria
ilangel@tu-sofia.bg
control, digital signal processing, application of advanced
control strategies, real-time diagnostics and safety information.
Modern electrohydraulic steering systems are composed of
conventional HSU, flow rate amplification valve (Load-
Sensing), pilot controlled proportional valve, finite state micro-
valve automata and steering cylinder with position sensor.
The purpose of the paper is to evaluate the performance of
two digital PI controllers for tracking of steering trajectory.
They are optimally tuned based on two alternative nonlinear
models – analytical physical model (PA) and nonlinear
autoregressive model (NARX). Physical model is a grey box
model where a particular structure is fixed and only the
parameter values are unknown. Nonlinear ARX model is a
black box model where only the input/output functional
behavior is important and not the underlying physical structure.
Grey box and black box models are two most often modeling
alternatives in system identification [2].
II. EMBEDDED SYSTEM DESIGN
Authors have constructed a laboratory hydraulic test
equipment for EHSU type OSPEC200 LSRM, taking into
account current technical specifications [3] from the
manufacturer. Design of the test bench system is described in
detail in [4].
Figure 1 presents a simplified schematic of the EHSU with
its main subsystems: digital valve module (PVE), 4-directional
3-position pilot valve and a steering cylinder. When the signal
𝑢𝑃𝑉𝐸 (𝑡) > 0 the upper left and lower left digital valves
switch to drive the pilot valve to the left. Alternatively when
𝑢𝑃𝑉𝐸 (𝑡) < 0 pilot valve moves to the right. 𝐾𝑃𝑉𝐸 (𝑠) is the
PVE internal controller for pilot valve position with reference
signal 𝑢(𝑡). The pilot valve supplies and directs the flow
through the steering cylinder. For example a right shift of the
pilot valve applies pressure to the left cylinder chamber.
Steering cylinder controller 𝐾𝐶𝑌𝐿 (𝑠) measures piston position
and calculates the signal 𝑢(𝑡) in order to track reference signal
𝑟(𝑡) from a steering wheel or joystick.
 7th Mediterranean Conference on Embedded Computing
The flow supplied from the switching valve bridge
translates the pilot valve. One has to note that current pilot
valve state is a linear combination either between its center
and left states or between the center and right state. In addition
to the pressure (𝑃𝐶𝑌𝐿 ) and tank (𝑇) ports the pilot valve
includes two additional ports marked with a tiny dashed line
on the figure 1. These are load sensing ports which detect the
pressure application to a cylinder chamber. Load sensing
signal allows the hydraulic system to partially turn off some
other low priority machine subsystem and to direct more flow
to the high priority steering subsystem.
FIG.1. HYDRAULIC SCHEMATIC OF EHSU
Our laboratory test bench equipment includes MC012-22
microcontroller [5], JS6000 joystick, OSPEC200LSRM EHSU
with embedded PVE, hydraulic cylinder and resistive position
sensor. Piston position is sensed by a variable resistive element.
The microcontroller hosts the PI control algorithm for cylinder
position.
A. STEERING SYSTEM MODELS
We’ve identified the dynamical transformation of the
control signal through the system with two alternative
nonlinear models labeled Physical Analogy (PA) and
Nonlinear ARX (NARX). According to [6,7,8] nonlinear
modeling is appropriate for power steering applications. Model
parameters are estimated with nonlinear least squares
optimization algorithm from the experimental data.
The first model (PA) accounts for available a priori
knowledge summarized in Figure 1. Every displacement 𝑥𝑃𝑉𝐸
of the PVE controlled pilot valve, expressed with (1), causes a
translation with velocity 𝑣𝑐𝑦𝑙 of the steering cylinder piston
according to (2). 𝐾𝑃𝑉𝐸 (𝑠) is represented as a standard PI
regulator (3). A term 𝑣𝑐𝑦𝑙,𝑞 in (2) accounts for compressibility
of the fluid (bulk modulus) which is evaluated from (4) and (5).
Viscous friction losses 𝐹𝑣 = −𝑘𝑣 𝑣𝑐𝑦𝑙 disturb the flow rate 𝑞𝑐𝑦𝑙
or equivalently 𝑣𝑃𝑉𝐸 .
MECO’2018, Budva, Montenegro
𝑡
𝑥𝑃𝑉𝐸 = ∫ 𝑣𝑃𝑉𝐸 (𝜏)𝑑𝜏 , 𝑣𝑃𝑉𝐸 = 𝑢𝑃𝑉𝐸 − 𝑘3 𝑣𝑐𝑦𝑙 (1)
0
𝑡
𝑦 = ∫ 𝑣𝑐𝑦𝑙 (𝜏)𝑑𝜏 , 𝑣𝑐𝑦𝑙 = 𝑘1 𝑥𝑃𝑉𝐸 + 𝑣𝑐𝑦𝑙,𝑞 (2)
0
𝑑 1
𝑢 = − 𝑢𝑃𝑉𝐸 + 𝑘(𝑢(𝑡 − 𝜏𝑒𝑙 ) − 𝑥𝑃𝑉𝐸 ) (3)
𝑑𝑡 𝑃𝑉𝐸 𝑇1
𝛥𝑉
= −𝐾𝑉 ⇒ 𝑞 = −𝐾𝑉𝑃̇ = 𝐾𝑞 𝑣𝑐𝑦𝑙 (4)
𝛥𝑃
𝑉 = 𝐾𝑉 𝑦, 𝑃 = 𝐾𝑃 𝑥𝑃𝑉𝐸 ⇒ 𝑣𝑐𝑦𝑙,𝑞 = −𝑘2 𝑣𝑃𝑉𝐸 𝑦 (5)
In the second model (NARX) the a priori knowledge about
system constructive elements is not of interest but only input-
output system behaviour is important. Then the steering
cylinder piston position 𝑦 is nonlinear function (6) of four
variables - two past values of 𝑦 and two past values of the
control signal 𝑢. The function 𝐹𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑒 is piecewise linear with
components 𝐶𝑘 𝑥⃗ + 𝑐𝑘 and domains 𝑀𝑘 as (7) shows. Each
domain 𝑀𝑘 is defined by it border normal vector 𝐵𝑘 and its
position within a binary tree structure of all domains. Input
vector’s domain is inferred with (8) where 𝑙𝑘 and 𝑟𝑘 are left
and right neighbors of a domain 𝑘. As a result 𝑥⃗ ∈
𝑀𝑖1 , 𝑀𝑖2 , … , 𝑀𝑖𝑧 and value of 𝐹𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑒 is calculated over 𝑀𝑖𝑗
where residuals Δ𝐹𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑒 (𝑥⃗ ∈ 𝑀𝑖𝑘 ) calculated with (9) reach
smallest value. The value of the function is selected based on
the smallest of them where 𝜂𝑘 = 𝜎𝑘2 is dispersion of the error
of the linear approximation in; 𝑀𝑘 . and 𝐷𝑘 is correlation matrix
of parameters. The function 𝐹𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑒 is estimated from
identification subset of experimental data with nlarx command
in MATLAB.
𝑦(𝑡 − 0.1)
𝑦(𝑡 − 0.2)
𝑦 = 𝐹𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑒 ( ) = 𝐹𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑒 (𝑥
⃗⃗⃗⃗) (6)
𝑢(𝑡 − 0.1)
𝑢(𝑡 − 0.2)

𝐹𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑒 (𝑥⃗ ∈ 𝑀𝑘 ) = 𝑑 + (𝐿 + 𝐶𝑘 )𝑥⃗ + 𝑐𝑘 , 𝑘 = 1 … 𝑁 (7)

𝐵𝑘 𝑥⃗ < 𝑏𝑘 ⇒ 𝑥⃗ ∈ 𝑀(𝑙𝑘 ), 𝐵𝑘 𝑥⃗ ≥ 𝑏𝑘 ⇒ 𝑥⃗ ∈ 𝑀(𝑟𝑘 ) (8)

𝛥𝐹𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑒 (𝑥⃗ ∈ 𝑀𝑘 ) = √𝜂𝑘 𝑥⃗ 𝑇 𝐷𝑘 𝑥⃗ 𝑙𝑛𝑁 2 , 𝜂𝑘 = 𝜎𝑘2 (9)

Experimental data are divided into two subsets - for
identification and for validation. The parameters of both
models are estimated from the same identification subset of
data. Rest of the data is left for validation of the models. Hence
validation subset of data is not explicit function of estimated
parameters as is the case with identification subset. Some
validation results are presented on Figure 2.
B. MODEL BASED DESIGN OF PI REGULATORS
Both identified models are exported as Simulink diagrams
and a discrete PI regulator structure is represented there too.
Regulator parameters are the proportional gain 𝐾𝑃 and the
 7th Mediterranean Conference on Embedded Computing
integral gain 𝐾𝐼 . A linear ramp signal is connected to the model
output to simulate worst case load disturbance.
FIG.2. COMPARISON OF THE TWO IDENTIFIED MODELS IN THE
TIME DOMAIN.
Then optimization procedure tunes regulator parameters to
minimize the cost function (10) with the help of lsqnonlin
command in MATLAB. Closed-loop step responses achieve
setting time of about 4 seconds for the full stroke with no
steady state error and overshoots (Fig.3).
2 where ‖𝑦‖2 is the 2-norm of a discretized signal and 𝑦̅ is its
𝐽(𝐾𝑃 , 𝐾𝐼 ) = √∑ (𝑟(𝑡) − 𝑦(𝑡, 𝐾𝑝 , 𝐾𝐼 )) (10)
FIG.3. CLOSED-LOOP PERFORMANCE AFTER PI TUNING
Despite of evident stability and dynamic performance of the
closed-loop during simulations closed-loop stability should be
investigated in more detail due to the non-linear models
employed in EHSU identification. However we’ve observed
only small variation in the transient response caused by non-
linear terms in the models which will be possibly dependant on
the estimated parameter values. Linearizations of both models
at four operating-points which symmetrically span the piston
stroke support such observations (Fig.4). Magnitude of the
linearized open-loop transfer function describing the
interconnection of the model and the PI regulator crosses 0dB
line before corresponding phase curve to reach -180 degrees
which guarantees the closed-loop stability according to the
Bode criteria.
III. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Regulator parameters are programmed into the
microcontroller. The experiment with physical test-bench
reveals the performance of both PI regulators (Fig.5 and Fig.6).
MECO’2018, Budva, Montenegro
To assess performance of each regulator the reference
trajectory and actual steering-cylinder piston stroke are
compared. The experimental data is recorded at constant load
pressure of 5MPa in the two chambers of the cylinder. The
loading system of the test bench [4] enables us to apply such
loading pressure with two over-center valves which are
adjusted manually. To avoid subjective factor reference
trajectory is programmed into the microcontroller and remains
unchanged during the experiments. In practice a human
operator will use a joystick device to generate desired reference
signal. In our experiments we use two kinds of reference
trajectories – a step signal which is a standard for controller
design (Fig. 5) and a piecewise linear signal which is typical
for steering applications (Fig. 6). Both trajectories cover the
full cylinder stroke in each direction. As an integral criterion
for closed-loop tracking performance we calculate the level of
fit in percentage units between reference and measured signal
with the expression (11) [2].
‖𝑦 − 𝑦𝑟𝑒𝑓 ‖
2
𝐹𝐼𝑇 = (1 − ) ∗ 100 (11)
‖𝑦𝑟𝑒𝑓 − ̅̅̅̅̅‖
𝑦𝑟𝑒𝑓
2
sample mean. Such integral measure is appropriate when both
signals are close enough or at least share same mean value.
FIG.4. STABILITY ANALYSIS OF NON-LINEAR ARX MODEL
CLOSED-LOOP WITH PI REGULATOR
FIG.5. EXPERIMENTAL RECORDING OF STEERING CYLINDER
PISTON POSITION (STEP REFERENCE)
 7th Mediterranean Conference on Embedded Computing
FIG.6. EXPERIMENTAL RECORDING OF STEERING CYLINDER
PISTON POSITION (PIECEWISE REFERENCE)
PI regulator based on NARX model is faster than the
regulator based on PA model in reaching the reference level.
However the rise times of both regulators are the same. It is
interesting also to note the similarities between simulated and
experimental step responses of the regulators although the
simulations are run with functionally close but different as a
structure nonlinear models. Tracking of the stepwise linear
reference trajectory with both regulators is well enough.
Variation of EHSU dynamics with the piston stroke is the
cause for non-uniform tracking errors.
Fig.7 shows the pressure drop and Fig.8 shows PVE control
signal for both regulators during the step reference. Pressure is
measured continuously cylinder chambers. Pressure drop is
calculated by subtracting right chamber from the left chamber
pressure. Pressure drop is proportional to the force acting on
the piston – when it is with positive sign the piston moves to
the right and when it is with negative sign the piston moves to
the left.
FIG.7. EXPERIMENTAL RECORDING OF PRESSURE DROP ACROSS
LEFT AND RIGHT CYLINDER CHAMBERS (STEP REFERENCE)
Control signal is applied to PVE module as a pulse-width
modulated voltage waveform. PVE drives an intermediate
pilot valve to distribute the flow between cylinder chambers.
Due to possible saturation of control we have implemented
backtracking anti wind-up algorithm in the microcontroller. In
the present experiments such saturation doesn’t happen so anti
wind-up is not activated.
MECO’2018, Budva, Montenegro
FIG.8. PVE INPUT SIGNAL (STEP REFERENCE)
IV. CONCLUSION
Two digital PI regulators are optimally tuned in
MATLAB/Simulink environment based on correspondent
alternative as structure nonlinear models identified from
experimental data. Table 1 summarizes calculated regulator
parameters and achieved performance by them. There 𝑥̅𝑒,𝑡𝑒 is
the mean of tracking error of the piecewise linear trajectory,
𝜎𝑒,𝑡𝑒 – standard deviation of the tracking error and FIT is
calculated according to (12)
Table. 1 Comparison of regulators & tracking.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Current research was supported by the funding contract №
DM 07 / 7 with National Science Fund Bulgaria.
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[4] Il. Angelov, Al. Mitov, “Test Bench for Experimental Research and
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Germany, 2016.
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[7] T. Schulze, J. Weber, “Model Based System Identification for Hydraulic
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[8] A. Kugi, “Non-linear Control Based on Physical Models. Electrical,
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Verlag London, 2001.
7th Mediterranean Conference on Embedded Computing MECO’2018, Budva, Montenegro