ADAPTIVE TRACKING CONTROL OF AN AIR POWERED ROBOT ACTUATOR

An adaptive controller is presented for a One-degree-of-freedom pneuma tic actuator. The control law uses full-state feedback for simultaneou s parameter identification and tracking control. For position control, a pneumatic actuator with high bandwidth is difficult to obtain becau se of the compressibility of air and the nonlinear characteristics of air flowing through a variable area orifice. Most previous controllers for gas powered actuators were relatively limited fixed gain or on-of f type controllers with low tracking accuracy. Experimental results de monstrate that tracking performance comparable to electric servomotors can be obtained using the algorithm Presented despite the nonlinearit ies and compressibility of air.