Performance Improvement of a Conventional Hydraulic Elevator by Using Electro-Hydraulic Servo Mechanism

An electro-hydraulic elevator is a new type of enhanced elevators that are used in low-rise buildings that do not exceed more than three floors. In this paper, an electro-hydraulic servo system for controlling the speed of a hydraulic elevator prototype by using a proportional valve and PID controller was investigated theoretically and experimentally. A three floors elevator prototype model with 76cm height was built including hydraulics components and electrical components. The elevator system is fully automated using the Arduino UNO board based Data Acquisition (DAQ) system. LabVIEW software is used to control the hydraulic elevator system through L298 DC drive via the DAQ board. The best PID gains was obtained experimentally. The elevator system prototype could be emplimented for educational purposes; such as learning the undergraduate students in the Electromechanical Engineering Department in the University of Technology how to structuring the electro-hydraulic elevator as well as the appropriate control strategy.