A Rotary Electropneumatic Servodrive for Industrial Robots

The paper describes progress in the development of a proposed fast, low-cost and accurate rotary electropneumatic servodrive for industrial robots. The system consists of a set of four on-off two-position solenoid activated valves, a three position on-off double solenoid activated valve, a reversible vane air motor, and a balls-crew to drive the load. The system is controlled by microprocessor. A mathematical model has been developed using bond graph techniques. The model has been simulated using CSMP. Parameters such as mass load, supply pressure, orifice area, and position feedback coefficients have been investigated. The initial simulated performances of the system are very satisfactory and indicate that such a system has considerable potential.