New pneumatic actuators developed in the author's laboratory will be presented with their applications to new mechatronics. Examples of them are a pneumatic rubber actuator for compliant robots, a micro pneumatic tube actuator assisting the colonscope insertion, a pneumatic stepping motor with high torque and resolution, a pneumatic drive bicycle, an intelligent pneumatic cylinder which has enc...

This study aims to develop a X-Y dual-axial intelligent servo pneumatic-piezoelectric hybrid actuator for position control with high response, large stroke (250 mm, 200 mm) and nanometer accuracy (20 nm). In each axis, the rodless pneumatic actuator serves to position in coarse stroke and the piezoelectric actuator compensates in fine stroke. Thus, the overall control systems of the single axis...

The objective of this paper is to present the methods of development and study of control law of rodless pneumatic actuator with fuzzy regulator in order to improve the accuracy of the pneumatic drive carriage positioning. The basis for improving the accuracy of positioning of the pneumatic actuator is the Intelligent Control System.

In recent years, Japanese society has been aging, engendering a labor shortage of young workers. Robots are therefore expected to perform tasks such as rehabilitation, nursing elderly people, and day-to-day work support for elderly people. The pneumatic balloon actuator is a rubber artificial muscle developed for use in a robot hand in such environments. This actuator has a long stroke and a hi...

This paper presents a comparative study among friction behavior of several double-acting pneumatic actuators available to industrial use. A brief review covering the manner that pneumatic actuator manufacturers and current literature approach friction force and its usual models also is presented. After depicting friction test methodology and test apparatus, the comparison work is carried out th...

The power density and variable compliance in pneumatic actuators makes them an attractive option for actuation in human assistive devices. Interaction safety in these devices can be robustly achieved through energetically passive controllers. Efficacy of these controllers depends on appropriate definition of actuator energy function. In previous works, the energy function was defined by assumin...

In this contribution we present the novel electro-pneumatic adaptable impedance actuator (EPAIA) consisting of a brushless DC-motor and a rotational pneumatic actuator, applied in series to the gear train. The pneumatic actuator is employed as a pneumatic torsional spring with a continuously adaptable stiffness, controlled by air inflow and pressure control. Thus, a rotary variable stiffness ac...

This paper describes a mathematical model for a novel rotary pneumatic rotary actuator with potential applications in revolute direct robotic mechanisms. The analytical model describes the behaviour of the rotary pneumatic actuator and simulated results using this model are generated. Potential applications of this model are discussed in the context of soft model based controllers used in prost...

A vision-based approach to the motion control of pneumatic group actuators is presented. Sensing of plate locations consisting of the pneumatic group actuator is essential to cope with the variation of elastic tubes of the actuator. Plate locations are measured by a vision system and the motion of the actuator is controlled using a roughly identified relationship between air pressure imposed on...

Fault diagnosis is an ongoing significant research field, due to the constant increasing need for maintainability, reliability and safety of industrial plants. The pneumatic actuators are installed mainly in harsh environment: high temperature, pressure, aggressive media, vibration, etc. This influenced on the Pneumatic actuator predicted lifetime. The failures in pneumatic actuator cause force...