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This paper describes the design, construction and experimental testing of a single-joint manipulator arm actuated by pneumatic artificial muscles (PAMs) for the tasks of transporting and sorting work pieces. An antagonistic muscle pair is used in a rotational sense to produce a required torque on a pulley. The concept, operating principle and elementary properties of pneumatic muscle actuators are explained. Different conceptions of the system realizations are analyzed using the morphological-matrix conceptual design framework and top-rated solution was practically realized. A simplified, control-oriented mathematical model of the manipulator arm driven by PAMs and controlled with a proportional control valve is derived. The model is then used for a controller design process. Fluidic muscles have great potential for industrial applications and assembly automation to actuate new types of robots and manipulators. Their characteristics, such as compactness, high strength, high power-to-weight ratio, inherent safety and simplicity, are worthy features for advanced manipulation systems. The experiments were carried out on a practically realized manipulator actuated by a pair of muscle actuators set into an antagonistic configuration. The setup also includes an original solution for the subsystem to add work pieces in the working space of the manipulator.

This paper presents the development of soft sensor empirical models using support<br /> vector machine (SVM) for the continual assessment of 2,3-dimethylbutane and 2-methylpentane mole percentage as important product quality indicators in the refinery isomerisation process. During the model development, critical steps were taken, including selection and pre-processing of the industrial process data, which are broadly discussed in this paper. The SVM model results were compared with dynamic linear output error model and nonlinear Hammerstein-Wiener model. Evaluation of the developed models on independent data sets showed their reliability in the assessment of the component contents. The soft sensors are to be embedded into the process control system, and serve primarily as a replacement during the process analysersb failure and service periods.