A practical application of fluid power systems in manufacturing

Abstract

SUMMARY Fluid power is one of the vast fields and its applications in manufacturing are not used for many real-time problems though its capabilities are known. One such application is fluid power for robotic systems . More specifically, in this study, a new hydraulic system is developed for use in actuating a robotic gripper. Electric motors were found unsatisfactory due to their poor power to weight ratio. Hydraulics were attempted using a master slave hydraulic system. Powering and positioning was done on the master cylinder, while the remote slave cylinder followed the motion. The control of the master cylinder was done with a ground based stepping motor and lead screw mechanism. Small hoses ran to the gripper based slave cylinder, which copied the motions.