Fuzzy logic hardware implementation for pneumatic control of one DOF pneumatic robot

The pneumatic actuators can be a useful way to control the position of a manipulator robot, instead of an electrical actuator. The major problem with pneumatic actuators is the compressibility of the air, due to the fact that the mathematical model is a system formed by a set of highly non-linear equations then a simple PID control is not enough to control the robot position, and fuzzy logic is a good option. This work is focused on the hardware implementation of Fuzzy logic algorithm into FPGA system. This paper also presents a methodology to implement a pneumatic control using fuzzy logic, into a FPGA device, which is the main contribution of this work. The air flow is controlled with a pulse width modulation, applied to the pneumatic electro- valve, with 25 ms of period.