DESIGN OF MECHATRONIC ACTUATION SYSTEMS BASED ON FLUIDIC ARTIFICIAL MUSCLES

Abstract

The actuators based on pneumatic artificial muscles are unconventional actuation systems which use the properties of special materials. The main advantages of the fluidic artificial muscles are: high actuation force, small weight and volume, flexible, small amount of wear, direct connection with the system, easy to replace, can operate in harsh conditions (sand, water, corrosive agents). For those reasons they may be used in many applications like robotics, industrial systems, rehabilitation engineering and others. A robotic artificial arm actuated by two fluidic artificial muscles in antagonist configuration was designed and developed as an application in the field of rehabilitation engineering, used for testing actuation systems based on pneumatic artificial muscles. Different types of structural schemes and consecrated pneumatic diagrams for controlling actuation systems based on artificial muscles were also studied.