Motion control of thrust system for shield tunneling machine

The thrust hydraulic system of the prototype shield machine with pressure and flow compound control scheme was introduced. The experimental system integrated with proportional valves for study was designed. Dynamics modeling of multi-cylinder thrust system and synchronous control design were accomplished. The simulation of the synchronization motion control system was completed in AMESim and Matlab/Simulink software environments. The experiment was conducted by means of master/slave PID with dead band compensating flow and conventional PID regulating pressure. The experimental results show that the proposed thrust hydraulic system and its control strategy can meet the requirements of tunneling in motion and posture control for the shield machine, keeping the non-synchronous error within ±3 mm.