Naturally compliant robot-arms actuated by McKibben artificial muscles

Abstract

The pneumatic artificial muscle invented in the fifties by J.L. McKibben and recently introduced in robotics under the form of replicas, such as the "Rubbertuator" or the "digit muscle" is analysed. A model of the actuator made of two McKibben artificial muscles is proposed and used to explain the actuator specific natural compliance. Control experiments, both in open-loop and closed-loop, developed on a two DOF SCARA robot prototype actuated by two pairs of McKibben artificial muscles are reported.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>