Development of a control system for the hydraulic system parameters of a vehicle with a combined chassis on an air cushion

Introduction (problem statement and relevance). The development problems of sparsely populated and hard-to-reach regions of the Russian Federation, including the Arctic zone, are associated with the development of transport links. The use of vehicles with a combined chassis on an air cushion, which makes it possible to dramatically increase their cross-country ability, is justifi ed for such regions.

Purpose of the study. Manual operating the hovercraft landing gear is diffi cult. To create an automatic control system, it was proposed to use an electronically controlled hydraulic system. The aim of the study was to develop a control system for the hydraulic system characteristics and provide the vehicle optimal control.

Methodology and research methods. The hydraulic performance management strategy was to simultaneously explore and control the vehicle and was of a two-level structure. The fi rst level included a algorithm which set up the controller parameters for the known supporting surface properties. The second level included an adaptive algorithm to adjust the parameters of the hydraulic system to consider the unknown properties of the supporting surface of the moving vehicle.

Scientifi c novelty and results. The developed hydraulic system for the drive of the air cushion fans and the drive of the caterpillar propeller allowed to increase the height of overcoming irregularities while maintaining the values of vertical g-forces of the vehicle, and also to reduce power consumption by 10–20% when overcoming a typical range of irregularities.

Practical signifi cance. The results obtained have created a theoretical and practical foundation for a new generation of special-purpose vehicles, in particular, equipped with an air cushion chassis, which will allow the formation of an effective dynamics with the insuffi ciently defi ned number of environment impact parameters.

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