Sliding mode tracking for actuators comprising pneumatic muscle and torsion spring

In this study, the sliding mode approach is applied to the tracking control problem of a planar arm manipulator system driven by a new type of actuator, which comprises a pneumatic muscle (PM) and a torsion spring. Unlike the traditional agonist/antagonist pneumatic muscle actuator, the PM is arranged in place of bicep and the torsion spring provides opposing torque in the presented actuator. The dynamic model is derived for this system and a sliding mode controller is designed to make the joint angle track a desired trajectory within a guaranteed accuracy even there are modeling uncertainties. A selection method is also proposed to obtain appropriate spring coefficient, which plays an important role in the tracking control task. The effectiveness of the proposed method is confirmed by simulations. The differences between the control results of using our new actuator and that of using the traditional pneumatic muscle actuator in opposing pair configuration are also compared.