Eventos Anais de eventos
COBEM 2017
24th ABCM International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
Pneumatic Muscle With Smart Braid Used in Orthosis
Submission Author:
Rebeca Oliveira , DF
Co-Authors:
Nathan Souza, Dianne Magalhães Viana, Rebeca Oliveira
Presenter: Rebeca Oliveira
doi://10.26678/ABCM.COBEM2017.COB17-1423
Abstract
Pneumatic Muscles – PAMs (“Pneumatic Artificial Muscles”) – are linear actuators strongly used in biomechanical applications due to their similarity with human muscles. Their low weight, actuation force and flexibility are main characteristics that allow them to be considered great actuators for orthosis used by patients in need of physiotherapy. However, there are some challenges in the process of controlling the PAMs, since there is a necessity of knowing the instantaneous length of the muscle, which will be used as input for the orthosis' position and speed control system, without affecting the actuator's flexibility. The use of Smart Braids allows the measurement of the compression rate of a pneumatic muscle by varying the induction and resistance on its conductive fibers. Inductance varies linearly with the contraction of the fibers, providing a newer and more practical way of controlling positon and speed of the pneumatic muscles. The purpose of this article is presenting the fabrication of the muscles as well as the mathematical model used for measuring the length of the muscle via induction and its closed loop control, providing both accuracy and actuation speed measurements when applied to a model orthosis.
Keywords
Pneumatic Muscles, PAMs, Linear Control, Conductive Fiber, orthosis
