Feed-Forward Control of a Construction Vehicle's Hydro-Mechanical Powertrain to Prevent Engine Stalling

Automation functionalities of mobile construction site vehicles continue to improve constantly with the growth of the industry. Advanced sensor technology and enhanced computational power allow for the development of innovative and robust assistance systems. By applying control algorithms to the machines, they are enabled to operate on a construction site autonomously. Whereas such use cases expand the utilization of these vehicles, existing features can be improved as well. For instance, load limit control avoids engine stalling of a mobile machine in critical scenarios by regulation of the engine dynamics. This work presents a feed-forward control approach for a telescopic handler's driving functionality, which is actuated by a hydro-mechanical powertrain and powered by a diesel engine. Application of the proposed method to the real system yields a quality of life improvement through a more reliable prevention of engine stalling due to a lower reaction time to external loads. Furthermore, the engine speed decrease is reduced by efficiently regulating the drive pump.