A series elastic actuator using air and water and its force control

This study proposes a new type of series elastic actuator (SEA) utilizing a mixture of air and water. Instead of simply mixing air and water, a control method for its output force based on piston position control is suggested using the stiffness model of the mixture. The actuator is driven by the pr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of mechanical science and technology Vol. 37; no. 9; pp. 4825 - 4835
Main Authors Choi, Iksu, Park, Chanyong, Yang, Gi-Hun, Choi, Hyouk Ryeol, Rodrigue, Hugo, Moon, Hyungpil
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Seoul Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers 01.09.2023
Springer Nature B.V
대한기계학회
Subjects
Actuators
Bulk modulus
Control
Control methods
Dynamical Systems
Engineering
Grasping force
Industrial and Production Engineering
Mechanical Engineering
Mixing ratio
Mixtures
Modulus of elasticity
Original Article
Pneumatics
Stiffness
Vibration
기계공학
Series elastic actuator
Hydrostatic actuator
Compliant actuator
Force estimation
Robot-environment interaction
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Summary:This study proposes a new type of series elastic actuator (SEA) utilizing a mixture of air and water. Instead of simply mixing air and water, a control method for its output force based on piston position control is suggested using the stiffness model of the mixture. The actuator is driven by the pressure generated when a stiff linear actuator compresses or decompresses the mixture in the syringe. The pneumatic medium makes the actuator compliant but slow, whereas the hydraulic one has a high bulk modulus, allowing for a fast but stiff response from the actuator. These characteristics can be adjusted by changing the air-to-water mixing ratio in the preparation stage before operation. After applying this actuator to the parallel jaw gripper system, grasping force control was performed without a load cell by utilizing the stiffness model of the mixture and the output force model. In an additional experiment, a very flexible object (a rose flower) and a very hard object (a glass vase) were successfully grasped by the gripper, which confirms the effectiveness of the actuator in controlling the grasping force.
ISSN:1738-494X
1976-3824
DOI:10.1007/s12206-023-0835-5