An Electrohydraulic Control Device With Decoupling Effect for Three-Chamber Soft Actuators

Three-chamber configuration is the simplest type among the fluid soft actuators with multiple degrees of freedom in three-dimension space. However, the motion control of the three-chamber fluid soft actuator is a challenging task because of the strong coupling effect of the chambers which are connected together. This article develops a novel electrohydraulic control device with decoupling function. The supplied pressures of three cylinders in the electrohydraulic control device are linked by a swash plate mechanism. The axial displacement, the tilted angle, and the azimuth angle of the swash plate are driven by three electrical motors separately and corresponding to the stretched length, the bending angle, and the yaw angle of the three-chamber soft actuator. Thus, the three outputs of the soft actuator can be independently controlled. Theoretical analysis is implemented to provide basis for machine design. A prototype is fabricated and experiments under both of static and dynamic conditions are carried out to evaluate the performance of the proposed concept. The results show that the electrohydraulic control device can effectively drive the three-chamber soft actuator and reduce the difficulty of controller design.