PID Control of an Electric Clutch Actuator

Abstract

A PID controller is designed for an electric clutch actuator, which adopts ball screw as the speed reduction mechanism. Ball screw has high transmission efficiency. However, it does not self-lock. Moreover, the nonlinear friction force, load force, and the nonlinear characteristics of the motor drive circuit increase the difficulty of the position control of the actuator. Model-based control development is used, and the PID coefficients are calibrated based on a simulation model. Then the tuned parameters are used for experimental test. Through experimental results, it is shown that the designed PID controller provides satisfied position tracking performance of the electric clutch actuator.