Fu Chun Shin Machinery Manufacture Co.

, Ltd
Project Report
Nonlinear modeling and identication of an
electro-hydraulic system
Made by:
Edward Nguyen
thanhng1985 at gmail dot com
August 28, 2014
Contents
1 Electro-hydraulic servo system 1
2 System modeling, identication, and validation 2
2.1 Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.1.1 Linear models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.1.2 Nonlinear models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.2 Excitation signals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.3 Identication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
References 8
i
List of Figures
1 Overview of the tested hardware architecture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2 A physical modeling of an electro-hydraulic system [1]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
3 Structure of Nonlinear ARX Models [3]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4 Pseudo-Random Binary Sequence [4]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
5 Chirp (Swept Sine) [4]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
6 Excitation signal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
7 Comparison between nlarx with arx . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
8 General outline of the system validation procedure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
9 Validation of the model. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
ii
List of Symbols
ARX Auto Regressive eXogenous
NLARX Nonlinear Auto Regressive eXogenous
d Time delay
e White noise
PRBS Pseudo Random Binary Sequence
T
s
Sampling time, [ms]
u Input
y Output
iii
1 Electro-hydraulic servo system
The basic elements of an electro-hydraulic servo system is shown in Fig. 1. It includes a servo motor, a directional
valve, a pump, a piston-cylinder, a load and an oil tank. The servo pump gives the supply pressure, to the valve
that just controls the movement direction. (Piston or) Loads position and velocity are regulated by a motion
controller.
Figure 1: Overview of the tested hardware architecture.
More detailed about the electro-hydraulic system is presented in Fig. 2.
1
Figure 2: A physical modeling of an electro-hydraulic system [1].
2 System modeling, identication, and validation
2.1 Modeling
2.1.1 Linear models
There are a lot of linear models, for example, Auto Regressive eXogenous (ARX); stochastic; output error; etc.
But the most popular and ecient is the ARX model. It is commonly used in industry, especially in servo pump
control system. A linear SISO ARX model is described by the following equation
A(z
1
)y(t) = B(z
1
)u(t n
k
) + e(t) (1)
or
G(z
1
) =
B(z
1
)
A(z
1
)
z
n
k
(2)
in which,
u(t) input, voltage, bar, rpm, or user unit.
y(t) - output, voltage, bar, rpm, or user unit.
e(t) - a white-noise disturbance (Gaussian distribution).
A(z
1
) = 1 + a
1
z
1
+ ... + a
n
z
n
a
B(z
1
) = b
0
+ b
1
z
1
+ ... + b
m1
z
(n
b
1)
n
a
- the number of poles of the system.
(n
b
1) - the number of zeros of the system.
n
k
- the system delay time.
2.1.2 Nonlinear models
When the linear models cannot be applied to the system, it should be replaced by nonlinear models. Similar
to linear case, there are also many nonlinear models. However, nonlinear ARX is often deployed. A nonlinear
ARX model can be understood as an extension of a linear model. Instead of the weighted sum that represents
a linear mapping, the nonlinear ARX model has a more exible nonlinear mapping function:
y(t) = f(y(t 1), y(t 2), ..., u(t 1, u(t 2), ...) (3)
2
where f is a nonlinear function. Inputs to f are model regressors.
When specifying the nonlinear ARX model structure, there are several available nonlinear mapping functions
such as wavenet, sigmoidnet, etc.,. Structure of nonlinear ARX models is shown in Fig. 3.
Figure 3: Structure of Nonlinear ARX Models [3].
The nonlinear ARX model computes the output y in two stages [3]:
Computes regressors from the current and past input values and past output data. In the simplest case,
regressors are delayed inputs and outputs, such as u(t 1) and y(t 3) - called standard regressors.
However, regressors can be customized, which are nonlinear functions of delayed inputs and outputs. For
example, tan(u(t-1)) or u(t-1)*y(t-3).
The nonlinearity estimator block maps the regressors to the model output using a combination of nonlinear
and linear functions. There are some nonlinearity estimators are often used, such as sigmoidnet network,
tree partition networks, wavelet networks, and multi layer neural networks.
The nonlinearity estimator block can include linear and nonlinear blocks in parallel:
F(x) = L
T
(x r) + d + g(Q(x r)) (4)
in which
x is a vector of the regressors.
L
T
(x r) is output of the linear part.
d is a scalar oset.
g(Q(x r)) is represents the output of the nonlinear part.
r is the mean of the regressors x.
Q is a projection matrix that makes the calculations well conditioned.
Estimating a nonlinear ARX model computes the model parameter values, such as L, r, d, Q, and other
parameters specifying g.
2.2 Excitation signals
Identication of a system involves a number of choices with regard to its output signals to measure and its input
signals to manipulate. Choices in how to manipulate system inputs, types of signal conditioning, signal ranges,
and sampling behavior play a large role in the validity of the obtained model. The choice of input signals plays
an important role in the observed system behavior and the goodness of the model. These signals determine
the operating points of the system and the modes that undergo excitation. While the choice of signals is often
limited by the system under test there are a variety of characteristics that an input signal should exhibit to
produce an experiment that provides the desired information for developing a model [4].
The system identication can be done and has a good performance (parameter identication) if the ap-
plication of a frequency-rich input. The standard solution in practice is the use of chirp (swept sine) and
Pseudo-Random Binary Sequence (PRBS)
A PRBS is shown in Fig. 4. PRBS is sequences of rectangular pulses, modulated in width, that approximate
a discrete-time white noise, and thus have a spectral content rich in frequencies. They owe their name pseudo-
random to the fact that they are characterized by a sequence length within which the variations in pulse width
vary randomly, but tat over a large time horizon, they are periodic, the period being dened by the length of
the sequence [5].
3
Figure 4: Pseudo-Random Binary Sequence [4].
A chirp is a sinusoid with a frequency that varies continuously over a certain range of values f
0
f f
1
for a specic period of time 0 t T. The instantaneous frequency f(t) varies with time:
f(t) = g(f
0
, k, t) (5)
where k is the rate of frequency increase or chirp rate:
k =
f
1
f
0
T
(6)
Note that, function f(t) can be linear or nonlinear. The following forms are often used:
Linear: f(t) = f
0
+ kt
Quadratic: f(t) = f
0
+ kt
2
Exponential: f(t) = f
0
k
t
The corresponding time-domain function for a sinusoidal chirp is the sine of the phase in radians:
x(t) = Asin(
0
+ 2f(t)) (7)
where
0
is the initial phase at time t = 0. An illustration of a chirp is shown in Fig. 5.
Figure 5: Chirp (Swept Sine) [4].
4
2.3 Identication
In order to design pistons position controller, the system must be modeled and identied. Input to the system
is motor velocity and system output is pistons position. Both linear ARX and nonlinear ARX are examined.
Chirp is the excitation signal, with average value of 600rmp and amplitude of 600rpm. Fig. 6 illustrates.
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.4 2.6 2.8 3
0
200
400
600
800
1,000
1,200
Time, s
q
C
m
d
,
r
p
m
Figure 6: Excitation signal.
From Fig. 7, it is clearly seen that the nonlinear ARX model gives higher t value and closer response
characteristics. So it would be a good candidate for our system. The NLARX model is in form of:
F(x) = (x r)PL + d +
2

i=1
a
i
f((x r)Qb
i
+ c
i
) (8)
where,
x is a vector of the regressors, given by the following expression:
x =

y(t 1) y(t 2) y(t 3) u(t 1) u(t 2)

r is the mean of the regressors x:

r =

95.6926 95.1809 94.6148 645.2088 645.9569

f is the sigmoid function, given by the following expression:

f(z) =
1
e
z
+ 1
(9)
P =

0.0000 0.0077 0.0012 0.4514 0.5163

0.0000 0.0077 0.0013 0.0693 0.8519
0.0000 0.0077 0.0013 0.5190 0.3353
0.0012 0.0011 0.0109 0.0016 0.0003
0.0012 0.0017 0.0108 0.0021 0.0004

L
T
=

9.3408 42.3027 5.1636 0.6045 0.1880

d = 113.1880
5
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.4 2.6 2.8 3
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
Time, s
m
m
xFbk
arx321, t: 92.78%
nlarx321, t: 95.73%
Figure 7: Comparison between nlarx with arx .
Q =

0.0000 0.0077 0.0012 0.4514 0.5163

0.0000 0.0077 0.0013 0.0693 0.8519
0.0000 0.0077 0.0013 0.5190 0.3353
0.0012 0.0011 0.0109 0.0016 0.0003
0.0012 0.0017 0.0108 0.0021 0.0004

a
T
=

0.5649 17.2309

b
T
=

0.2210 0.2425 2.1730 0.0450 0.2818

0.2436 0.1179 0.0862 0.1034 0.2855

c =

2.6254 3.1669

It is good practice to compare the system and model to a common input. That means with the same
command passes by the system and the model, and then compare the outputs. Fig. 8 illustrates.
G(z, )
Model
G
0
(z)
Plant
(t) qCmd(t) y(t, )
y
0
(t)
+

Figure 8: General outline of the system validation procedure.

Testing input signal is a s-curve. The comparison between simulation and experiment results are shown in
Fig. 9. From this gure, it is clearly to see that the simulation and the experiment results are very close. So,
the model can be approximated to the physical model (system).
6
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2 2.4 2.6 2.8 3
20
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
Time, s
qCmd, 0.1rpm
Plant output, mm
Model ouput, mm
Figure 9: Validation of the model.
3 Conclusion and future works
The present report shows that when a physical system comprises non-linear characteristics, for example valve,
oil and temperature, the non-linear model should be employed. Its characteristics, rising and response time
are closer to the physical than that of the linear model. However, the t valve is not seem to be the desired
valve (at least 98.0%), hence a low-pass lter must be added to clean the noise and the non-linear part could
be utilized more.
7
References
[1] J. Liu, H. Wu, H. Handroos, and H. Haario, Parameter estimation of an electrohydraulic servo system
using a markov chain monte carlo method, Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control, vol.
135, October 2012.
[2] K. J.-P. Angue-Mintsa, Venugopal and C. Belleau, Adaptive position control of an electrohydraulic servo
system with load disturbance rejection and friction compensation, Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measure-
ment, and Control, vol. 133, Nov 2011.
[3] Identifying nonlinear arx models, MathWorks. [Online]. Available: http://www.mathworks.com/help/
ident/ug/identifying-nonlinear-arx-models.html#bq5o xw-4
[4] Stimulus and acquisition considerations in the system identication process, National Instruments, Jun
2010. [Online]. Available: http://www.ni.com/white-paper/4170/en/
[5] L. Ljung, System Identication: Theory for the User (2nd Edition), 2nd ed. Prentice Hall, 1 1999.
[Online]. Available: http://amazon.com/o/ASIN/0136566952/
8