Design of an Improved Active Disturbance Rejection Control Method for a Direct-Drive Gearshift System Equipped with Electromagnetic Linear Actuators in a Motor-Transmission Coupled Drive System

Abstract

In this study, a type of direct-drive gearshift system integrated into a motor-transmission coupled drive system is introduced. It used two electromagnetic linear actuators (ELAs) to perform gearshift events. The adoption of ELAs simplifies the architecture of the gearshift system and has the potential to further optimize gearshift performance. However, a number of nonlinearities in the gearshift system should be investigated in order to enhance the performance of the direct-drive gearshift system. An active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) method was selected as the principal shifting control method due to the simple methodology and strong reliability. The nonlinear characteristics of the electromagnetic force produced by the ELA were subsequently reduced using the inverse system method (ISM) technique. The ADRC approach also incorporated an acceleration feedforward module to enhance the precision of displacement control. The extended state observer (ESO) module used a nonlinear function in place of the original function to improve the ability to reject disturbances. Comparative simulations and experiments were carried out between the ADRC method and improved ADRC (IADRC) method. The outcomes demonstrate the effectiveness of the designed control method. The shift force fluctuates less, and the shift jerk decreases noticeably during the synchronization procedure. In conclusion, combined with the optimized IADRC method, the direct-drive gearshift system equipped with ELAs shows remarkable gearshift performance, and it has the potential to be widely used in motor−transmission coupled drive systems for EVs.