Design and Mathematical Modeling of a Pneumatic Artificial Muscle-Actuated System for Industrial Manipulators

Pneumatic muscles have significant advantages over typical pneumatic cylinders, such as smooth speed adjustment, higher power-to-weight ratio and longer operating life. Applying a pneumatic artificial muscle is a way to considerably simplify manipulator mechanisms due to its physical properties. This paper deals with the development of positioning control principles of pneumatic artificial muscle drive and presents numerical and experimental investigations of different operation modes such as lifting and lowering a load under normal working conditions, operation in a case of a sudden load separation and position control by manual operator force. In this work, the mathematical model elaborated earlier was numerically and experimentally investigated. Experimental validation of static and dynamic characteristics confirmed the results of the theoretical studies, so the elaborated model can be used to design a PAM-based manipulator with required characteristics.