In this paper, a novel pneumatic cylinder is proposed, named Magnetic Brake Cylinder. It is composed of a tank, a pneumatic cylinder, and a permanent magnet, and with this, the piston is held by the attractive force of the magnet until the pressure inside the tank is very high, offering a higher driving power than an ordinary cylinder when using the same pressure source. In addition, a control method of its driving power is introduced. The developed actuator is then mounted into two types of rescue inspectors: a rolling and jumping rescue robot, which uses a cylinder to jump over obstacles, and a throw and collect rescue inspector, which deploys with the cylinder a child machine over high obstacles . Both developed prototypes showed higher jumping and throwing height than when using an ordinary cylinder, proving to be an option of effective enhancement of traversing ability for pneumatically powered robots.
A casting motion or a jumping motion can enhance the traverse ability and agility simultaneously of a mobile robot. This paper describes the development of a novel actuator, based on a pneumatic driving unit, which enables the generation of high-speed motion necessary to realize the motions mentioned above. The proposed actuator, named Magnetic Brake (MB) Cylinder, is composed of a pneumatic cylinder, a permanent magnet, a portable tank, and small valves. The speed of conventional pneumatic cylinders highly depends on the size of the valve which drives it. Since the magnet plays a role to enhance the impulsive release function of pneumatic energy instead of using a big and heavy valve, the pressure inside the cylinder can be kept in high condition, enabling the generation of high velocity with light structure. The height control method of casted objects with the MB Cylinder and its design method are also described in this paper. The analysis of the performance of the MB Cylinder and its simulation method are described for when using the MB Cylinder for both casting motion and jumping motion. After the developed unit is installed on both the casting device and the jumping robot, the validity of the proposed methods is experimentally verified in addition to discussion on its application to rescue operation.
For an effective search for survivors over debris in collapsed buildings, the authors have been developing the Throw and Collect type rescue inspector. The performance of this rescue robot is based on the parent robot throwing the child machine, equipped with cameras and sensors over high debris for inspection of the area and for searching for survivors, and then to draw it back, which should be better than trying to roll over, or jump over obstacles, as usual robots do. The throwing mechanism consists of a magnetic brake cylinder, which was developed to overcome the problems of the internal pressure fall of the pneumatic cylinder when moving light loads. However, the first magnetic brake cylinder designed does not have the necessary structure and mechanism to provide control over the child machine's throwing distance. This paper describes the design and the controlling method of a new magnetic brake cylinder, which allows control of the throwing distance of the child machine.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.