Trajectory Control of a Hydraulic Excavator using Disturbance Observer in $H_{\infty}$ Framework

This paper presents a disturbance observer based on an $H_{\infty}$ controller synthesis for the trajectory control of a hydraulic excavator. Compared to conventional robot manipulators driven by electrical motors, the hydraulic excavator has more nonlinear and coupled dynamics. In particular, the interactions between an excavation tool and the materials being excavated are unstructured and complex. In addition, its operating modes depend on working conditions, which make it difficult to not only derive the exact mathematical model but also design a controller systematically. In this study, the approximated linear model obtained through off-line system identification is used as nominal plant model for a disturbance observer. A disturbance observer based tracking controller which considers the effect of disturbance and model uncertainty is synthesized in $H_{\infty}$ frameworks. Simulation results are used to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed control scheme.