Abstract
Purpose - Intelligent Pneumatic Actuator (IPA) is a new generation of actuator developed for Research and Development (R&D) purposes in the academic and industrial fields. This paper is presented to show the application of optical encoder and pressure sensor in IPA, to develop a real-time model similar to the existing devices, and to assess the position control performance using a Proportional-Integrative (PI) controller and a Bang-bang controller in real-time.Design/methodology/approach - A micro optical encoder chip is used to detect cylinder rod position by reading constructed laser stripes on a guide rod, whereas a pressure sensor is used to detect the chamber pressure reading. Two unit valves of two ports and two positions were used to control the cylinder movements by manipulating PWM cycles. A PI controller and a Bang-bang controller are used with suitable gain value to drive the valve using PWM to achieve the target actuator position.Findings - The results show the experimental results of the closed-loop position tracking performance of the system using a Data Acquisition (DAQ) card over MATLAB software.Originality/value - This paper presents a real-time model used to replace the microcontroller-based system from previous IPA design. Two control strategies PI and Bang-bang are proposed to control position using encoder and pressure reading.
Purpose - Intelligent Pneumatic Actuator (IPA) is a new generation of actuator developed for Research and Development (R&D) purposes in the academic and industrial fields. This paper is presented to show the application of optical encoder and pressure sensor in IPA, to develop a real-time model similar to the existing devices, and to assess the position control performance using a Proportional-Integrative (PI) controller and a Bang-bang controller in real-time.Design/methodology/approach - A micro optical encoder chip is used to detect cylinder rod position by reading constructed laser stripes on a guide rod, whereas a pressure sensor is used to detect the chamber pressure reading. Two unit valves of two ports and two positions were used to control the cylinder movements by manipulating PWM cycles. A PI controller and a Bang-bang controller are used with suitable gain value to drive the valve using PWM to achieve the target actuator position.Findings - The results show the experimental results of the closed-loop position tracking performance of the system using a Data Acquisition (DAQ) card over MATLAB software.Originality/value - This paper presents a real-time model used to replace the microcontroller-based system from previous IPA design. Two control strategies PI and Bang-bang are proposed to control position using encoder and pressure reading.