A Review on the Development of Pneumatic Artificial Muscle Actuators: Force Model and Application

Abstract

Pneumatic artificial muscles (PAMs) are soft and flexible linear pneumatic actuators which produce human muscle like actuation. Due to these properties, the muscle actuators have an adaptable compliance for various robotic platforms as well as medical applications. While a variety of possible actuation schemes are present, there is still a need for the development of a soft actuator that is very light-weight, compact, and flexible with high power-to-weight ratio. To achieve this, the development of the PAM actuators has become an interesting topic for many researchers. In this review, the development of the different kinds of PAM available to date are presented along with manufacturing process and the operating principle. The various force models for artificial muscle presented in the literature are broadly reviewed with the constraints. Furthermore, the applications of PAM are included and classified based on the fields of biorobotics, medicine, and industry, along with advanced medical instrumentation. Finally, the needful improvements in terms of the dynamics of the muscle are discussed for the precise control of the PAMs as per the requirements for the applications. This review will be helpful for researchers working in the field of robotics and for designers to develop new type of artificial muscle depending on the applications.

Design methodology of portable upper limb exoskeletons for people with strokes

“…The power-to-weight ratio of pneumatic actuators is also high. The cylinder and the artificial muscle (Tondu and Lopez, 2000 ) are the two components that make up pneumatic actuators, which are now established products on the market (Kalita et al, 2022 ). The key advantage of artificial muscle is that, in comparison to other active actuators now on the market, it delivers a better torque to weight ratio.…”

Design, Construction and Control of a Manipulator Driven by Pneumatic Artificial Muscles

“…Their characteristics of compactness, high strength, high power-to-weight ratio, inherent safety and simplicity are valuable features for advanced manipulation systems. There are several types of fluidic muscles based on the use of rubber or similar elastic materials, such as McKibben’s artificial muscle [ 1 , 2 , 3 ], Bridgestone’s rubbertuator [ 4 , 5 ], Shadow Robot Company’s air muscle [ 6 ], Festo’s fluidic muscle [ 7 , 8 ], the folded PAM developed by the Vrije University of Brussels [ 9 ], the ROMAC (RObotic Muscle ACtuator), Yarlott and Kukolj’s PAM [ 10 ] and several others. In most cases, the structure of the fluidic muscle consists of an airtight inner polymer tube contained in a flexible piece of hollow-braided construction and corresponding metal end pieces for external attachment and pressurization.…”

Prescribed performance sliding mode control for the PAMs elbow exoskeleton in the tracking trajectory task

“…the pneumatic artificial muscle [PAM]) (Hamaya et al , 2017). The PAM, a soft linear pneumatic actuator, comprises an inner rubber tube and a wrapped sheath, thus showing notable advantages of a high power-to-weight ratio, inexpensive, similar force properties as biological muscles and being subjected to compatible interaction with the human environment (Hamaya et al , 2017; Lin et al , 2021; Kalita et al , 2022; Cao and Huang, 2013). Under the effect of the above-mentioned benefits, the PAM-actuated exoskeleton is capable of conforming to the requirements of lightweight and joint compliance.…”

“…Under the effect of the above-mentioned benefits, the PAM-actuated exoskeleton is capable of conforming to the requirements of lightweight and joint compliance. For instance, the PAMs elbow exoskeleton (NEUROExos) reaches only 2.3 kg (covering all actuators and mechanics components), and it can be used in the robot-assisted passive rehabilitation with a comfortable human-exoskeleton interaction (Kalita et al , 2022).…”