Braided pneumatic actuator control of a multi-jointed manipulator

Problems with control and compliance of pneumatic systems have prevented their widespread use in advanced robotics. However, their compactness, power/weight ration and safety are factors that could potentially be exploited in sophisticated dexterous manipulator designs. This paper reports on the design of a dexterous manipulation with three fingers and an opposal thumb powered by 18 new compact braided pneumatic muscle actuators (PMA). These muscles (which are variants on the McKibben Muscle design) have considerable power output potential, combined with controllable motion and inherent compliance to prevent damage to handled objects. When arranged as antagonistic pairs the joints of the gripper can be driven independently. Using experimental data a system model can be developed and control of these muscles can be explored showing that accurate regulated performance is feasible