Nonlinear voltage control for motion state detection in solenoid valves: A Lyapunov approach

In this paper, a control strategy that enables a reliable dip detection for solenoid valves is presented. For this purpose, the power electronics components are temporarily switched into a linear mode, using a power MOSFET as a voltage controlled resistor. The voltage is stabilized via a nonlinear controller that has been designed using Lyapunov´s direct method. The stability region is determined and theoretical investigations are conducted in order to find appropriate controller parameters. The usefulness of the method is demonstrated by several experiments deploying an FPGA based hardware platform.