Parallel Manipulator DrIVEN BY

 Pneumatic Muscle Actuators

YANG Gang  LI Baoren  FU Xiaoyun

(FESTO Pneumatic Center, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074)

Abstract: A parallel manipulator with three orientational degrees of freedom driven by pneumatic muscle actuators (PMA) is proposed. A fuzzy variable structure controller (FVSC) is designed on the basis of analyzing kinematics and dynamics of the parallel manipulator. The experiment shows that the maximum error is 0.3 mm. When the air supply pressure is changed, the error is still less than 0.6 mm. The results demonstrate that the parallel manipulator driven by PMAs is appropriate and FVSC method is suitable for the parallel manipulator.

Key words: Pneumatic muscle actuators  Parallel manipulator Variable structure control  Fuzzy control

CLC No: TH138  TH237

国家自然科学基金资助项目(50375057).Received 20050801, received in revised form 20060120