Robust Control of Engine Test Bed for Vehicle Motion Simulation

In order to evaluate performances of an engine that is developed, there is a way that a certain vehicle model constructed on a computer is virtually performed by using a low-inertia dynamo. This way does not need any devices of the actual vehicle except for the engine. This paper shows the control method of the low-inertia dynamo connected to the engine through a hydraulic damper and a steel shaft so as to generate the torque according to the vehicle model simulation. Since the hydraulic damper used to absorb the impulsive torque from the engine has nonlinear property of variation of its torsional rigidity, we apply μ-synthesis by using of structured singular value. Variation of the torsional rigidity can be dealt with as structured uncertainty. By simulations and experiments it is verified that μ controller designed is more effective for the plant with variation of parameter than H_∞, controller.