Position Control of Pneumatic Artificial Muscle Manipulator

The article is dedicated to study of position control with operator manual force in balanced pneumatic artificial muscle manipulator. Proposed control approach can be applied for manipulation tasks, which don't require high accuracy. The numerical modelling of static characteristics of operator force demonstrates the effectiveness of this control approach. Also, paper describes the solution that can ensure safety for PAM manipulator in case of a sudden load separation by implementing hydraulic damper. Presented mathematical models are based on the earlier elaborated and experimental validated model of pneumatic artificial muscle.