Flatness-Based Feedback Control of an Automotive Solenoid Valve

This brief considers the control of solenoid valve actuators used for gas exchange in internal combustion engines. Although solenoid valves offer performance benefits over traditional camshaft-based valve systems, maintaining low impact velocity is a critical performance requirement. Flatness provides a convenient framework for meeting a number of performance specifications on the valve's end motion. The proposed control design incorporates voltage constraints, nonlinear magnetic effects, and various motion planning requirements. A flat output acts as a design parameter and is parameterized with a spline basis. A nonlinear feasibility problem is solved to obtain optimal spline coefficients such that performance requirements are met. The resulting flat output provides an open-loop control which is augmented with feedback so that a linear stable tracking error system results. The proposed control scheme is demonstrated in simulation and on an experimental testbed. The performance of a proportional-integral controller is compared experimentally to the flatness-based method