U of Minnesota - Fluid Power Controls Lab

Fluid Power Controls Laboratory
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Minnesota
111 Church St. SE
Rm 458
Minneapolis MN 55455

Overview

The University of Minnesota Fluid Power Controls Laboratory is a teaching and research laboratory dedicated to the promotion and advancement of fluid power technologies. Founded in Spring 1999, the laboratory is generously supported by a consortium of fluid power related companies. The education mission of the laboratory was kicked off with the senior level course ME 5232 - Fluid Power Controls Laboratory in Spring quarter of 1999. This course is later renumbered as ME4232 with the same name under the semester system. The research aspect of this laboratory is to use and advocate the rigorous use of dynamic systems, control and mechatronic concepts to fluid power systems in innovative ways. Currently, our research has focused on the design of new valves and pumps,and on the development of human friendly hydraulic systems such as teleoperated hydraulic machines and human power amplifiers.

Equipment

Hydraulic workbench

The hydraulic workbench is used to demonstrate the operation of hydraulic components. The workbench is powered by a 1Hp variable displacement pressure compensated vane pump. Students use the workbench to build hydraulic circuits to enhance their understanding of fluid power systems.

Electrohydraulic actuator

The electrohydraulic actuator is used as an experimental setup for the design and implementation of control algorithms. The MTS double ended cylinder actuator is coupled to a Moog servo valve. The servo valve is controlled by a PC (NT) via the Realtime toolbox in the Matlab environment. Students can design, simulate, analyze and test control algorithms in the Matlab environment. The actuator is set up for both positioning and force control experiments.

Teleoperated Backhoe with Force Feedback

This setup is used for our research on passive teleoperation of hydraulic machines. As the human operator operates the backhoe via the force feedback joystick, the resistance that the backhoe encounters is fed back to the operator. This makes the teleoperated backhoe feels like a passive mechanical tool to the human operator.

The backhoe is also used for generic research of high performance control of multi-degree-of-freedom electrohydraulic machines.

Stringline Follower System

A stringline follower system is widely used in paving industry. It is essentially a dual actuated beam system. Each end of the beam is actuated by a hydraulic actuator. The control must level the beam according to the angle of a string.

Human Power Amplifier

“Quiet” Hydraulic Power Supply

Fluid Power Reading Group

People

Faculty

Prof. Perry Y. Li (Lab. Director)
Prof. Kim A. Stelson(Lab. Co-director)
Prof. Tom R. Chase
Prof. Tianhong Cui

Graduate Student Assistant

Mike Rannow (on/off valve based control)
Haink Tu (on/off valve based control)
Rachel Wang (on/off valve based control)
Mike Stoner (Human controlled hydrostatic vehicle)
Venkat Durbha (Passive pneumatic and chemofluidic control)
David Grandall (hydraulic hybrid vehicle)
Michael Olson (hydraulic hybrid vehicle)

Undergraduate student

Alumni

Kailash Krishnaswamy (Honeywell Labs) (Project: Hydraulic passive teleoperation)
Qinghui Yuan (Eaton Innovation Center) (Project: Unstable valve)
Charlie Groepper (MTS Systems) (Project: PQT sensor)

Course offering:

ME 4232 Fluid Power Controls Laboratory

Research :

Design of unstable valves
Design of passive electrohydraulic valves and their applications to bilateral teleoperation
Dynamic analysis and re-design of servo-control valves
Software Enabled Variable Displacement Pumps
Integrated Pressure-Flow-Temperature (PQT) Sensors
Control of a Hydraulic Human Power Amplifier
Passive control of pneumatic and chemofluidic actuation
Open accumulator approach to compact energy storage
Hydraulic hybrid vehicle - small Urban Vehicle (sUV) test bed

Videos:

Our goal is to develop a mobile hydraulic actuated human exoskeleton or human amplifier. The first phase of the project concerns the design and construction of a human powered oar and was carried out by the Senior Design team - the oar team. See above for a video of the machine in operation! Fundings from NFPA and donations from Eaton and TORO are appreciated.

Passive pneumatic force amplification on a 1 DOF setup (video 1, video 2)
- Implementation on a tree lopper (in coorporation with P. Baker and Will Durfee) (w/o actuation, w/ actuation)