A Servo System with Engine Actuator

Abstract

In the field of robotics, especially locomotion robotics, ‘power to weight ratio’ gathers a lot of attentions but we have had no remarkable improvement on this problem. Usual actuator system i.e., ‘motor and battery’ or ‘piston-cylinder and compressor’ have poor ‘power to weight ratio’, thus it is not possible to employ them for such purpose, to use as actuators for walking robots with multi-legs, robots for constructing buildings and so on. On this viewpoint, we try to construct a servo system by using gasoline engine as an actuator. Though engines can not stop or rotate reversely, the weight of engine with gasoline tank is far lighter than the weight of motor and battery. To overcome the defect of gasoline engine, we employ a computer controlled clutch system, and bang-bang regulator technique.