• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
• /
• v.35 no.5
• /
• pp.533-541
• /
• 2011

This paper presents a frequency-response test performed on an antagonistic actuation system consisting of two Mckibben pneumatic artificial muscles and a pneumatic circuit with pressure valves. Varying switching frequency to pressure valves from 0.1 Hz to 5 Hz, parameters of a linear model were estimated optimally to predict dynamic characteristics of the antagonistic actuation. A model-base control scheme with estimated parameters was built for the precise trajectory tracking of the antagonistic structure and realized on a reconfigurable embedded control system, CompactRIO. Experimental results showed that the proposed model-based control scheme gave good performance in trajectory tracking comparing with a PD control scheme when square wave and sinusoidal wave were given as references to follow.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
• /
• v.33 no.10
• /
• pp.1081-1086
• /
• 2009

This paper presents dynamic characteristics of pneumatic artificial muscles. Since the actuating performance of a pneumatic muscle is closely related to the input pressure of a pneumatic muscle, the air flow model on a valve orifice and an elastic bladder of the muscle is formulated to estimate precisely the pressure variance of pneumatic muscles during deflating and inflating process. Frequency response experiments are performed with an antagonistic system consisting of two pneumatic muscles and fast pneumatic control valves. Comparing with experimental results, the proposed model yielded good performance in estimating dynamic motions of the antagonistic system as well as the pressure variance of the pneumatic artificial muscles

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
• /
• v.41 no.8
• /
• pp.771-782
• /
• 2017

This paper describes the development of a wearable robot to assist ankle power for the elderly. Previously developed wearable robots have generally used motors and gears to assist muscle power during walking. However, the combination of motor and reduction gear is heavy and has limitations on the simultaneous control of stiffness and torque due to the friction of the gear reducer unlike human muscles. Therefore, in this study, Mckibben pneumatic muscle, which is lighter, safer, and more powerful than an electric motor with gear, was used to assist ankle joint. Antagonistic actuation using a pair of pneumatic muscles assisted the power of the soleus muscles and tibialis anterior muscles used for the pitching motion of the ankle joint, and the model parameters of the antagonistic actuator were experimentally derived using a muscle test platform. To recognize the wearer's walking intention, foot load and ankle torque were calculated by measuring the pressure and the center of pressure of the foot using force and linear displacement sensors, and the stiffness and the torque of the pneumatic muscle joint were then controlled by the calculated ankle torque and foot load. Finally, the performance of the developed ankle power assistive robot was experimentally verified by measuring EMG signals during walking experiments on a treadmill.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
• /
• v.6 no.1
• /
• pp.34-41
• /
• 2011

This paper presents a frequency-response test performed on an antagonistic actuation system consisting of two Mckibben pneumatic artificial muscles and a pneumatic circuit. A linear model, capable of estimating the dynamic characteristics of the antagonistic system in the operating range of pneumatic artificial muscles, was optimally calculated based on frequency-response results and applied to a multiple simultaneous specification control scheme. Trajectory tracking results showed that the presented multiple simultaneous specification controller, built experimentally by three PD typed sample controllers, satisfied successfully all required control specifications; rising time, maximum overshoot, steady-state error.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
• /
• v.37 no.12
• /
• pp.1521-1527
• /
• 2013

This study proposes a wearable master device that can measure the joint stiffness and the angular displacement of a human operator to enhance the adapting capability of a slave system. A lightweight inertial sensor and the exoskeleton mechanism of the master device can make an operator feel comfortable, and artificial pneumatic muscles having a working principle similar to that of human muscles improve the performance of the slave device on emulating what a human operator does. Experimental results revealed that the proposed master/slave system based on the muscle stiffness sensor yielded uniform tracking performance compared with a conventional position-feedback controller when the payload applied to the slave system changed.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
• /
• v.39 no.4
• /
• pp.361-367
• /
• 2015

This paper presents the design concept of an intrinsic continuum robot for safe man-machine interface and characteristic behaviors of its end-effector based on real experiments. Since pneumatic artificial muscles having similar antagonistic actuation to human muscles are used for main backbones of the proposed robot as well as in the role of the actuating devices, variable stiffness of robotic joints can be available in the actual environment. In order to solve the inherent shortcoming of an intrinsic continuum robot due to bending motion of the backbone materials, a Kalman filter scheme based on a triaxial accelerometer and a triaxial gyroscope was proposed to conduct an attitude estimation of the end-effector of the robot. The experimental results verified that the proposed method was effective in estimating the attitude of the end-effector of the intrinsic continuum robot.