Design of a Hierarchical-Type Control System Based on Smart MBD Approach and its Application to Hydraulic Excavator

Model-based development (MBD), which utilizes system models to design complex products, has received increasing attention. However, an advanced control system design scheme is required to accurately control the developed products under harsh conditions for practical usage. This paper proposes a control system that integrates a data-driven compensator (DDC) with a model-based control (MBC) system design. The proposed method considers a hierarchical control structure comprising an upstream control system based on the MBC design approach and a downstream control system that includes a plant control loop with a DDC. The proposed system can always maintain the desired performance by driving the MBC based on an ideal model because the downstream control system, DDC, maintains the characteristics of the ideal model even if the plant properties change owing to changes in operational and/or environmental conditions. In this study, the design scheme for unifying models and data in the MBD process is called smart MBD (S-MBD), and the proposed control system design scheme is based on the S-MBD approach. The effectiveness of the proposed hierarchical control system is verified by applying it to a hydraulic excavator.