Development and control of simple-structured flexible mechanisms using flexible pneumatic cylinders

This paper deals with two kinds of flexible mechanism with simple structure. One is a flexible pneumatic robot arm which can bend, expand and contract (3-DOF). The other is a flexible spherical actuator which can move along a spherical surface (2-DOF). These two mechanisms utilize three or two rod-less type flexible pneumatic cylinders developed by us. The cylinder can be easily applied to a bending and expanding mechanism such as a robot arm because of its flexibility. The control system of each mechanism consists of flexible pneumatic cylinders, quasi-servo valves, an accelerometer and a microcomputer. In this paper, the construction, operating principle, fundamental characteristics, analytical model for a control and master-slave control results of the mechanism are described. These developed mechanisms will be applied to a rehabilitation device in the future.