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Position Control of Rubber Artificial Muscle Using Built-in Ultrasonic Sensor and Quasi-Servo Valve

So Shimooka, Shujiro Dohta, Tetsuya Akagi, and Yoshinori Moriwake
Department of Intelligent Mechanical Engineering, Okayama University of Science, Okayama, Japan

Abstract—Today, the care and welfare pneumatic equipment to support a nursing care and a self-reliance of the elderly and the disabled are actively researched and developed by many researchers. These wearable devices require many servo valves for multi degrees of freedom and precise control performance of the wearable actuator. The total weight of the wearable devices increases according to the degree of freedom. In the previous study, a small-sized and light-weight pressure control type quasi-servo valve and rubber artificial muscle using built-in displacement sensor were developed. The quasi-servo valve consists of two on/off control valves and an embedded controller. In this study, an ultrasonic sensor is installed in the rubber artificial muscle as a displacement sensor. Then, the position control of the artificial muscle using the built-in displacement sensor is proposed and tested. As a result, it is confirmed that the position control of the muscle can be realized using the tested sensor.

Index Terms—ultrasonic sensor, small sized control valve, rubber artificial muscle, embedded controller

Cite: So Shimooka, Shujiro Dohta, Tetsuya Akagi, and Yoshinori Moriwake, "Position Control of Rubber Artificial Muscle Using Built-in Ultrasonic Sensor and Quasi-Servo Valve," International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research, Vol.4, No. 4, pp. 304-308, October 2015. DOI: 10.18178/ijmerr.4.4.304-308