Low-disturbance Nonlinear Control of TBM Cutterhead Speed in Coal Mine Tunneling

To minimize the disturbance of the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) cutterhead on the surrounding rock during the coal mine roadway excavation process and ensure that the cutterhead rotation speed achieves fast tracking performance with minimal overshoot, we propose a direct adaptive robust control method for the cutterhead rotation speed hydraulic system based on inversion design. This method considers the strong disturbances such as loads and motion affecting the cutterhead hydraulic drive system, as well as the uncertainties in the cutterhead model. We establish the nonlinear model of the cutterhead hydraulic drive system and employ virtual control to reduce the model order. Using Lyapunov functions, we ensure the stability of the entire system and derive the control law for the cutterhead rotation speed controller, along with parameter-adaptive laws acting as parameter estimators. We validate the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy through joint simulation using AMESim and Simulink. The results show that the designed cutterhead rotation speed controller achieves high tracking accuracy and good adaptability.