Design and optimization of a new kind of hydraulic cylinder for mobile robots

摘要

In order to improve the efficiency of multi-actuator mobile robots hydraulic system, this paper proposes a new kind of cylinder whose effective area is variable. The new cylinder has multi chambers which can be connected with each other or to a main system circuit by controlling switching valves. On the one hand, the new cylinder can make sure that the load pressure of all actuators is almost equal through varying effective area. On the other hand, the new cylinder can realize the flow recovery through that return chambers are connected with feeding chambers. Therefore, the new cylinder can reduce overall machine energy consumption by reducing throttling losses and allowing energy recovery. The performance of the new cylinder is analyzed through building the mathematical model. Based on the evaluated results, in order to further improve the performance of the load match of the cylinder and avoid the deflection of the main piston, the structure of the cylinder is optimized. Finally, an optimized cylinder is shown in this paper which has well performance of the load match.