文章基本信息

标题：Investigating the Effect of a Mechanism Combined with a Speed-Increasing Gear and a Pneumatic Artificial Muscle
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作者：Masashi Sekine ; Ryohei Kokubun ; Wenwei Yu 等
期刊名称：Actuators
电子版ISSN：2076-0825
出版年度：2018
卷号：7
期号：2
页码：22
DOI：10.3390/act7020022
语种：English
出版社：MDPI Publishing
摘要：The lightness and softness of pneumatic artificial muscles (PAMs) contribute to their safe use in mechanical devices involved with humans. However, a PAM has limited range of motion (ROM) and a stroke-dependent output force. In this paper, a mechanism combined with a PAM and a speed-increasing gear was developed to improve the tradeoff relationship between the ROM and output force and to verify its benefits in order to enhance the convenience of using PAMs. The gear enhanced the ROM and back-drivability of the PAM, which is beneficial for device safety in daily use. We first designed a mechanism consisting of an antagonistic system-driven PAM and the gear, and then simulated the relationship between the ROM and output force of the mechanism. The effectiveness of the mechanism including the gear was compared with a non-gear mechanism with multiple PAMs. We prototyped the PAM mechanism with and without the gear, and their ROMs, impact absorption, and viscoelasticity were experimentally investigated. Results showed that the gear effectively improved both ROM and output torque below a certain load; moreover, the gear ratio and air pressure had large effects on the external static and dynamic forces, respectively. We confirmed comprehensively the effect and feasibility of the mechanism.
关键词：speed-increasing gear; pneumatic artificial muscle; back-drivability; viscoelasticity; antagonistic drive system speed-increasing gear ; pneumatic artificial muscle ; back-drivability ; viscoelasticity ; antagonistic drive system