Motion Synchronization Control for a Large Civil Aircraft’s Hybrid Actuation System Using Fuzzy Logic-Based Control Techniques

The motion synchronization of the hybrid actuation system (composed of a servo-hydraulic actuator and an electro-mechanical actuator) is very important for all applications, especially for civil aircraft. The current research presents a nested-loop control design technique to synchronize motion between two different actuators, such as a servo-hydraulic actuator (SHA) and an electro-mechanical actuator (EMA). The proposed strategy consists of a trajectory, an intelligent position controller (fuzzy logic-based controller), a feed-forward controller, and an intelligent force controller (fuzzy logic-based controller). Position, speed, and acceleration signals are produced by trajectory at a frequency that both SHA and EMA can follow. The SHA/EMA system’s position tracking performance is enhanced by the feed-forward controller and intelligent position controller working together, while the intelligent force tracking controller lowers the issue of force fighting by focusing on the rigid coupling effect. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed strategy, simulations are performed in the Matlab/Simulink environment. The result shows that the proposed intelligent control strategy not only reduces initial force fighting, but also improves load-rejection performance and output-trajectory tracking performance.