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Optimal control scheme for pneumatic soft actuator under comparison of proportional and PWM-solenoid valves

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Abstract

Pneumatic soft actuator is a crucial component of soft robot. This paper proposes several pneumatic control schemes implemented with proportional and PWM-solenoid valves to achieve optimal control for pneumatic soft actuators adapted to different soft robots, such as soft gripper and soft humanoid hand. The schemes include: proportional valve; 3/2-way PWM-solenoid valve; 2/2-way PWM-solenoid valve. The control framework of these schemes contains human–machine interface in upper computer and control algorithm in lower computer. Sinusoidal and multi-step signals are served as reference input to draw a comparison of pressure tracking precision, steady-state accuracy and responsibility of these proposed schemes. The experimental results show that the scheme of proportional valve is more excellent than those of the PWM-solenoid valves, and the scheme of 3/2-way is superior to that of 2/2-way with regard to PWM-solenoid valve. Considering the cost, the scheme of 3/2-way PWM-solenoid valve is the most suitable choice for the system with multi-channel soft actuators. Therefore, the research achievement of this paper is providing a valuable suggestion on balancing the performance and cost for different soft robotic system applications.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the supports provided by the National Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 61803267, China Postdoctoral Science Foundation funded project under Grant No. 2017M622757, the Beijing Science and Technology Program under Grant No. Z171100000817007, the National Science Foundation of China under Grant Nos. 61503212 and 61572328. Moreover, the authors are grateful for the support of Science and Technology Commissioned Project of Shenzhen University (the research of pneumatic network type tactile perception soft bionic hand).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Information Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, China

    Haiming Huang, Junhao Lin, Linyuan Wu & Fuchun Sun

  2. Department of Computer Science and Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Bin Fang & Fuchun Sun

Authors
  1. Haiming Huang
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  2. Junhao Lin
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  3. Linyuan Wu
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  4. Bin Fang
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Haiming Huang or Fuchun Sun.

Appendix

Appendix

See Tables 5, 6 and 7.

Table 5 The pressure calibration data of three kinds of valves
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Table 6 The related parameters of control and mass of object for soft gripper as grasping different fruits: orange, guava, avocado
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Table 7 The related duty ratio of PWM and gas pressure for soft humanoid hand showing different gestures
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Huang, H., Lin, J., Wu, L. et al. Optimal control scheme for pneumatic soft actuator under comparison of proportional and PWM-solenoid valves. Photon Netw Commun 37, 153–163 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11107-018-0815-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11107-018-0815-3

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