Abstract
This paper proposes a control approach that can provide significant energy savings for the control of pneumatic servo systems. The control methodology is formulated by decoupling the standard four-way spool valve used for pneumatic servo control into two three-way valves, then using the resulting two control degrees of freedom to simultaneously satisfy a performance constraint (which for this paper is based on the sliding mode sliding condition), and an energy-saving dynamic constraint that minimizes cylinder pressures. The control formulation is presented, followed by experimental results that indicate significant energy savings with essentially no compromise in tracking performance relative to control with a standard four-way spool valve.