Experiments on collaborative control characteristics of driving and steering for agricultural flexible chassis based on PWM signal

Abstract: Electromagnetic friction lock is an important part of agricultural flexible chassis. When it is closed, flexible chassis will be driven forward, and will steer when opened. In engineering practice, flexible chassis needs to steer while advancing. Therefore, there is conflict between the opening and the closing of electromagnetic friction lock when the 2 motions need to be carried out at the same time. In order to solve this problem, a method based on pulse width modulation (PWM) technology was proposed to control the opening and the closing in this paper. The opening was achieved during low level of PWM wave, while the closing was achieved during high level of PWM wave. In this way, flexible chassis can be driven forward during steering. Further, some experiments were conducted to investigate the influences of PWM frequency and duty cycle on driving and steering performance of flexible chassis. Firstly, based on off-centered steering shaft test bench, two-factor experiments were performed to study the effects of frequency and duty cycle on pulse tightening torque, using a traction device which was composed of a lever and a force sensor. Then tightening torque was calculated from force sensor measurement and arm length value. Secondly, for the purpose of examining the characteristics of time-sharing steering related with the influence of frequency, duty cycle and initial speed of electric wheel, a quadratic orthogonal regression experiment was conducted on off-centered steering shaft test bench. In this test, steering motion was simulated by controlling the speed of horizontal turntable of test bench and electric wheel. Average steering angular velocity was taken as the evaluating indicator of steering characteristics, and it can be attained by measuring the steering time due to the same target angle of steering. Afterwards, results of two-factor experiment showed that frequency, duty cycle and their interaction had highly significant influences on tightening torque (P<0.01). In the process of rotation, the curve of tightening torque showed a pulse change, and the rotation angle of steering arm displayed a step-like rise. When frequency was 4-24 Hz and duty cycle was 20%-80%, the tightening torque of off-centered steering shaft varied from 6.822 to 40.046 N·m. The tightening torque declined as frequency increased when duty cycle was 20%-80% except a few duty cycles. Meanwhile, for the frequency ranging from 4 to 24 Hz, tightening torque rose with the increasing of duty cycle. Then regression analysis was carried out according to the results and a regression model was presented. Results of quadratic orthogonal regression experiment illustrated that the average steering angular velocity was remarkably influenced by the PWM frequency, duty cycle and their interaction as well as the initial rotation speed of in-wheel motor (IWM) (P<0.05). With the increment of duty cycle and the initial speed of IWM, the steering average angular velocity decreased rapidly but slowly increased with the increasing of frequency. When the frequency was 4-24 Hz and the duty cycle was 20%-80%, and the initial speed of IWM was 30-120 r/min, the average steering angular velocity varied from 0 to 0.514 rad/s. Therefore, through changing the PWM frequency, duty cycle and the initial speed of IWM, the process of pulse-driven and time-sharing steering for flexible chassis is able to be well achieved, and these results can provide a basis for cooperative control of flexible chassis.