Intelligent Pneumatic Actuators (IPA) and its application

This book presents the development of two types of intelligent pneumatic actuators (IPA) for physical human-machine interaction applications. The previously developed small type intelligent actuator was enhanced and proposed for Active Links Pillow (ALP) application while the development of a new high force intelligent pneumatic actuator was proposed for a chair tool namely Pneumatic Actuated Seating System (PASS). The developed new actuator consists of five extensive elements in a single device combining software and hardware architectural design. The actuator can performed spring and damping characteristics controlled from embedded system. Several control algorithms of position, force, compliance and viscosity were carried out for the actuator experimental evaluation. The application of PASS, a new chair type physical human and machine interaction seating system powered by thirty six developed intelligent pneumatic actuators is focused in this book.