Design and Evaluation of a Pneumatic Muscle Actuated Gripper

Authors: Tudor Deaconescu, Andrea Deaconescu

Abstract:

Deployment of pneumatic muscles in various industrial applications is still in its early days, considering the relative newness of these components. The field of robotics holds particular future potential for pneumatic muscles, especially in view of their specific behaviour known as compliance. The paper presents and discusses an innovative constructive solution for a gripper system mountable on an industrial robot, based on actuation by a linear pneumatic muscle and transmission of motion by gear and rack mechanism. The structural, operational and constructive models of the new gripper are presented, along with some of the experimental results obtained subsequently to the testing of a prototype. Further presented are two control variants of the gripper system, one by means of a 3/2-way fast-switching solenoid valve, the other by means of a proportional pressure regulator. Advantages and disadvantages are discussed for both variants.

Keywords: Gripper system, pneumatic muscle, structural modeling.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1096019

References:

[1] C. Stăncescu, Theoretical and Experimental Study of Gripper Systems with Jaws used in Industrial Robots, PhD thesis, Transilvania University of Braşov, 2009.
[2] I. Stareţu, Gripper Systems (in Romanian). Lux Libris, Braşov, 2010.
[3] G.J. Monkman, S. Hesse, R. Steinmann, H. Schunk, Robot Grippers. WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim, 2007.
[4] S. Hesse, Grippers and their Applications. Blue Digest on Automation. © 2004 by Festo AG & Co. KG.
[5] H. Murrenhoff, Fundamentals of Fluid Technology. Part 2: Pneumatics (in German), Shaker Verlag, Aachen, 2006.
[6] Biorobotics - Build Your Own Robotic Air Muscle Actuator, http://www.imagesco.com/articles/airmuscle/AirMuscleDescription01.ht ml
[7] Shadow Air Muscles, http://www.shadowrobot.com/products/airmuscles/
[8] Festo AG & Co., Fluidic Muscle MAS, with Screwed Connections, Catalogue, 2005.
[9] M. Mihajlov, Modelling and Control Strategies for Inherently Compliant Fluidic Mechatronic Actuators with Rotary Elastic Chambers, Ph.D. thesis, Institute of Automation, University of Bremen, Germany, 2008.
[10] A. Wilkening, D. Baiden, O. Ivlev, "Assistive Control of Motion Therapy Devices Based on Pneumatic Soft-Actuators with Rotary Elastic Chambers”, Proceedings of "IEEE International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics", ICORR, pp. 1-6, Zürich, 2011.
[11] Festo. PowerGripper – Research project for the development of new gripper systems. http://www.festo.com/cms/en_corp/12728.htm
[12] DMSP-…-HGP-SA Muscle Gripper. Festo. SA 234717 Product Catalogue. https://www.festo.com/net/SupportPortal/Files/10157/SA234717.pdf
[13] T. Deaconescu, A. Deaconescu, "Pneumatic Muscle Actuated Gripper”, International MultiConference of Engineers and Computer Scientists, Hong Kong 2011, International Association of Engineers (IAENG), Proceedings vol. II, pp. 1305-1308, Newswood Limited, Hong Kong.
[14] G. Fantoni, D. Gabelloni and J. Tilli, "How to Design New Grippers by Analogy. Department of Mechanical”, Nuclear and Production Engineering, University of Pisa, Report, 2012.
[15] F. Dudiţă, D.V. Diaconescu, Textbook of Mechanisms. Kinematics. Dynamics (in Romanian), Universitatea din Braşov, 1982.