The McKibben muscle belongs to the type of muscles known as braided muscles. It is made of an inner hyper-elastic tube, surrounded by a braided shell made of inextensible threads; both ends provide mechanical and pneumatic seal. A finite element model of a McKibben pneumatic muscle was built and experimentally validated. The model is based on characteristic parameters of McKibben muscles. It takes into account the non-linearity of the constitutive material of the inner tube. It does not simulate backslashes between the tube and the shell at rest condition, but it models threads and rubber that are always connected. However, it does not consider friction among threads. In order to build and to validate the proposed numerical model, an experimental prototype of the muscle was designed and built. Both isotonic and isometric tests were carried out. Same tests were simulated in the finite element environment. The model validation was performed by comparison between experimental and numerical results.

This paper describes the control architecture of a 10 DOF (Degrees of Freedom) lower limbs exoskeleton for the gait rehabilitation of patients with gait dysfunction. The system has 4 double‐acting rod pneumatic actuators (two for each leg) that control the hip and knee joints. The motion of each cylinder’s piston is controlled by two proportional pressure valves, connected to both cylinder chambers. The control strategy has been specifically designed in order to ensure a proper trajectory control for guiding patient’s legs along a fixed reference gait pattern. An adaptive fuzzy controller which is capable of compensating for the influence of the dry friction was successfully designed, implemented and tested on an embedded real‐time PC/104. In order to verify the proposed control architecture, laboratory experiments without a patient were carried out and the results are reported here and discussed

This paper presents the development and implementation of a pneumatic muscle actuator based on an idea proposed by a research group at the University of Warsaw. The muscle comprises a silicone rubber tube with plugs at the ends. The tube wall contains high-rigidity wires arranged parallel to the tube axis. Circular rings are present on the exterior of the tube. When air is introduced into the tube, the actuator becomes bulky and contracts. In order to establish a prediction model of muscle behavior, a finite element model was developed, and in this model, the Mooney-Rivlin formulation was implemented with two coefficients for rubber simulation and truss elements for the wires. Several prototypes were developed, and a test bench for the experimental characterization of muscle performance was set up. The results of comparison between prototype behavior and model prediction are presented. The finite element model can be used to design the actuator with different dimensions; hence, it was used to conduct a simulated test campaign to develop a quick actuator sizing procedure. Using dimensional analysis, few project parameters were identified on which the performance of the actuator depends. Through a complete simulation campaign using the finite element model, an abacus was constructed. It allows sizing the actuator as required based on the desired performances according to an established procedure.

In this paper the design and the manufacture of a 3-dof (degrees of freedom) robot driven by shape memory alloys (SMA) is presented. This robot has a parallel structure including a fixed plate and a moving plate. The plates are linked together by 3 SMA wires and a mechanical spring is located in the central part. Possible applications are the control devices to orient a mirror, a sample under a microscope or to orient the head of a micro snake like robot. The paper explains the kinematic model, the mechanical design and the control system of the robot. The feedback signals of the closed loop control system are the displacements of the SMA joints located on the moving plate, measured by three conductive potentiometers. The control system is P.C. based. The SMA actuators are driven by Nitinol wires of a diameter of 0.15 mm. The robot takes up a cylinder with a diameter of 100 mm and a height of 180 mm. A prototype of the robot has been manufactured and some experimental tests were carried out. These tests are carried out both using a simple test bed made by a SMA wire and a pulley, and using the prototype itself. The step response of a single SMA wire and the trajectory control to describe a circle in the prototype are also shown as validation tests of the robot. The results of the experimental validation show the feasibility of this design, but particular attention has to be paid to the machining and to the assembly.

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The grasper satisfies technical design specifications. On the basis of the results obtained, a control system can be developed to test grasper in a simulated surgery environment.

In the landscape of Industry 4.0, advanced robotics awaits a growing use of bioinspired adaptive and flexible robots. Collaborative robotics meets this demand. Due to human–robot coexistence and interaction, the safety, the first requirement to be satisfied, also depends on the end effectors. End effectors made of soft actuators satisfy this requirement. A novel pneumatic bending soft actuator with high compliance, low cost, high versatility and easy production is here proposed. Conceived to be used as a finger of a collaborative robot, it is made of a hyper-elastic inner tube wrapped in a gauze. The bending is controlled by cuts in the gauze: the length and the angular extension of them, the pressure value and the dimensions of the inner tube determine the bending amplitude and avoid axial elongation. A design methodology, oriented to kinematically mirror the shape of the object to be grasped, was defined. Firstly, it consists of the development of a non-linear parametric numerical model of a bioinspired finger; then, the construction of a prototype for the experimental validation of the numerical model was performed. Hence, a campaign of simulations led to the definition of a qualitatively predictive formula, the basis for the design methodology. The effectiveness of the latter was evaluated for a real case: an actuator for the grasping of a light bulb was designed and experimentally tested.