Je. Bobrow et Bw. Mcdonell, MODELING, IDENTIFICATION, AND CONTROL OF A PNEUMATICALLY ACTUATED, FORCE CONTROLLABLE ROBOT, IEEE transactions on robotics and automation, 14(5), 1998, pp. 732-742
This research focuses on modeling and control of a light-weight and in
expensive pneumatic robot that can be used for position tracking and f
or end-effector force control. Unlike many previous controllers, our a
pproach more fully accounts for the nonlinear dynamic properties of pn
eumatic systems such as servovalve how characteristics and the thermod
ynamic properties of air compressed in a cylinder. We show with theory
and experiments that pneumatic actuators can rival the performance of
more common electric actuators. Our pneumatic robot is controlled by
extending existing manipulator control algorithms to handle the nonlin
ear how and compressibility of air. The control approach uses the tria
ngular form of the coupled rigid body and air how dynamics to establis
h path tracking, In addition to the trajectory tracking control law, a
hybrid position/force control algorithm is developed. The experimenta
l results indicate that the tip forces on the robot can be controlled
without the need for an expensive force/torque sensor usually required
by electric motor driven systems.