Force and position control of rubberless artificial muscle antagonistic drive system

Abstract

This paper describes the control of the rubberless artificial muscle antagonistic drive system. The rubberless artificial muscle is a pneumatic artificial muscle that uses no rubber tube. It can contract by low pressure, but it has nonlinear characteristics including hysteresis characteristics. For this study, we apply the rubberless artificial muscle to an antagonistic drive system. Then we control an antagonistic position and antagonistic force. A position feedback control system with linearization by a mechanical equilibrium model showing the static characteristic of the rubberless artificial muscle is applied. In addition, contraction force is controlled by another force feedback control system. From experimentally obtained result, it was confirmed that the antagonistic position is almost identical to the target position. Furthermore, antagonistic force is also controlled appropriately even if the antagonistic position is moving.