scholarly journals Active Motion Control of a Knee Exoskeleton Driven by Antagonistic Pneumatic Muscle Actuators

Actuators ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 134
Author(s):  
Wei Zhao ◽  
Aiguo Song
Keyword(s):  
Sliding Mode ◽  
Weight Ratio ◽  
Practical Application ◽  
Active Motion ◽  
Pneumatic Muscle ◽  
The Past ◽  
Robotic Devices ◽  
Muscle Actuators ◽  
Further Development ◽  
Rehabilitation Robotic

The pneumatic muscle actuator (PMA) has been widely applied in the researches of rehabilitation robotic devices for its high power to weight ratio and intrinsic compliance in the past decade. However, the high nonlinearity and hysteresis behavior of PMA limit its practical application. Hence, the control strategy plays an important role in improving the performance of PMA for the effectiveness of rehabilitation devices. In this paper, a PMA-based knee exoskeleton based on ergonomics is proposed. Based on the designed knee exoskeleton, a novel proxy-based sliding mode control (PSMC) is introduced to obtain the accurate trajectory tracking. Compared with conventional control approaches, this new PSMC can obtain better performance for the designed PMA-based exoskeleton. Experimental results indicate good tracking performance of this controller, which provides a good foundation for the further development of assist-as-needed training strategies in gait rehabilitation.

Experimental Comparisons of Sliding Mode Controlled Pneumatic Muscle and Cylinder Actuators

2014 ◽  
Vol 136 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ville Jouppila ◽  
S. Andrew Gadsden ◽  
Asko Ellman
Keyword(s):  
Sliding Mode ◽  
Weight Ratio ◽  
Industrial Applications ◽  
Stick Slip ◽  
Servo Systems ◽  
Pneumatic Muscle ◽  
Positioning Systems ◽  
Actuation System ◽  
Highly Nonlinear ◽  
Muscle Actuators

Pneumatic muscle actuators offer a higher force-to-weight ratio compared to traditional cylinder actuators, and introduce stick-slip-free operation that offers an interesting option for positioning systems. Despite several advantages, pneumatic muscle actuators are commonly avoided in industrial applications, mainly due to rather different working principles. Due to the highly nonlinear characteristics of the muscle actuator and pneumatic system, a reliable control strategy is required. Although muscle actuators are widely studied, the literature lacks detailed studies where the performance for servo systems is compared with traditional pneumatic cylinders. In this paper, a pneumatic servo actuation system is compared with a traditional cylinder actuator. As the overall system dynamics are highly nonlinear and not well defined, a sliding mode control (SMC) strategy is chosen for the control action. In order to improve the tracking performance, an SMC strategy with an integral action (SMCI) is also implemented. The control algorithms are experimentally applied on the pneumatic muscle and the cylinder actuator, for the purposes of position tracking. The robustness of the systems are verified and compared by varying the applied loads.

scholarly journals A New Approach to Modeling and Controlling a Pneumatic Muscle Actuator-Driven Setup Using Back Propagation Neural Networks

Complexity ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun Zhong ◽  
Xu Zhou ◽  
Minzhou Luo
Keyword(s):  
Back Propagation ◽  
Weight Ratio ◽  
Adaptive Controller ◽  
Back Propagation Neural Network ◽  
Sampled Data ◽  
Nonlinear Characteristics ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Pneumatic Muscle ◽  
Muscle Actuators

Pneumatic muscle actuators (PMAs) own excellent compliance and a high power-to-weight ratio and have been widely used in bionic robots and rehabilitated robots. However, the high nonlinear characteristics of PMAs due to inherent construction and pneumatic driving principle bring great challenges in applications acquired accurately modeling and controlling. To tackle the tricky problem, a single PMA mass setup is constructed, and a back propagation neural network (BPNN) is employed to identify the dynamics of the setup. An offline model is built up using sampled data, and online modifications are performed to further improve the quality of the model. An adaptive controller based on BPNN is designed using gradient descent information of the built-up model. Experiments of identifying the PMA setup using BPNN and position tracking by adaptive BPNN controller are performed, and results demonstrate the good capacity in accurate controlling of the PMA setup.

scholarly journals Implementation of an Upper-Limb Exoskeleton Robot Driven by Pneumatic Muscle Actuators for Rehabilitation

Actuators ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 106
Author(s):  
Chun-Ta Chen ◽  
Wei-Yuan Lien ◽  
Chun-Ting Chen ◽  
Yu-Cheng Wu
Keyword(s):  
Upper Limb ◽  
Elbow Joint ◽  
Sliding Mode ◽  
Sliding Mode Controller ◽  
Pneumatic Muscle ◽  
Upper Limb Exoskeleton ◽  
Exoskeleton Robot ◽  
Fuzzy Sliding Mode ◽  
Steel Cables ◽  
Muscle Actuators

Implementation of a prototype of a 4-degree of freedom (4-DOF) upper-limb exoskeleton robot for rehabilitation was described in this paper. The proposed exoskeleton robot has three DOFs at the shoulder joint and one DOF at the elbow joint. The upper-limb exoskeleton robot is driven by pneumatic muscle actuators (PMA) via steel cables. To implement the passive rehabilitation control, the rehabilitation trajectories expressed in the Fourier series were first planned by the curve fitting. The fuzzy sliding mode controller (FSMC) was then applied to the upper-limb exoskeleton robot for rehabilitation control. Several rehabilitation scenarios were carried out to validate the designed PMA-actuated exoskeleton robot.

scholarly journals Evaluation of MRI-compatible pneumatic muscle stepper motors

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 339-341
Author(s):  
Robert Odenbach ◽  
Alan Guthrie ◽  
Michael Friebe
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  
Muscle Length ◽  
Engineering Industry ◽  
Stepper Motor ◽  
Pneumatic Muscle ◽  
Metal Free ◽  
Pneumatic Muscles ◽  
Stepper Motors ◽  
Robotic Devices ◽  
Muscle Actuators

AbstractThe automation of instruments and tools (e.g. bone drill) or robotic devices (e.g. needle positioning robot for prostate surgery) for use in interventional MRI (iMRI) is still challenging due to a lack of accurate, affordable and completely metal-free actuators and motors. Inspired by biological muscles, a bionic equivalent known as the fluid muscle actuator (which can be operated pneumatically or hydraulically) is well-known in the mechanical engineering industry. Fluid muscle actuators have multiple beneficial characteristics: they are simple, self-returning, low-friction and can produce relatively high actuation forces at low diameters and pressures. We present two novel designs for metal-free, pneumatic stepper motors for potential application in iMRI. Our stepper motors are powered by simple pneumatic muscles, which are assembled from low-cost off-the-shelf components. Besides, the components of the stepper motor demonstrators were 3Dprinted using a stereolithographic additive manufacturing process (SLA printing). We evaluate the effect of pneumatic muscle length on contractile force and length. Our results demonstrated the functional feasibility of the pneumatic muscle-powered and fully MRI-compatible stepper motor designs. In a next step, we will optimize the motor´s design, characterize their performance and reliability, and use the stepper motors to power a micropositioning device in iMRI-phantom tests.

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