Improvement of control performance of pneumatic rubber artificial muscle manipulator by using electrorheological fluid damper

The goal of the paper is to improve the control performance of a pneumatic rubber artificial muscle actuator with variable damper using electrorheological fluid. The air compressibility and the lack of damping ability of the actuator bring the dynamic delay of the pressure response and cause oscillatory motion. A variable damper comprising electrorheological fluid(ERF) is used in the joint of the manipulator. Some experiments on step response have proved that by using a phase plane switching control method the stability of the manipulator can be improved compared with a usual PID control method in high gain control