The traditional hydraulic system used a sliding spool to control the inlet and outlet oil ways of the hydraulic actuator at the same time, as a result that the system had high consumption, low efficiency, and was prone to cavitation under active load conditions. In order to prevent cavitation phenomenon of hydraulic cylinder under the active load condition, the anti-cavitation characteristics of four hydraulic systems were analyzed theoretically, including the traditional hydraulic system, the independent metering control system, the independent metering control system with inlet differential pressure compensation and the independent metering control system with outlet differential pressure compensation. The relationship between the opening ratio μ of inlet and outlet valves and parameters such as air separation pressure Pm and load force FL was obtained. Four hydraulic system simulation models were established, and the same load force FL, inlet valve opening K1 and other simulation parameters were set, the simulation results showed that in addition to the traditional hydraulic system, the other three independent metering control systems can avoid cavitation phenomenon by changing the opening ratio μ of inlet and outlet valves, and the independent metering control system with outlet differential pressure compensation did not need to test the load force FL. Finally, the feasibility of the simulation results was verified by the experiments.