Angle control of pneumatically-driven musculoskeletal model using antagonistic muscle ratio and antagonistic muscle activity

Recently, research into robots that coexist with people in many areas such as the service and medical industries is active. Such robots need to be both safe and flexible. To satisfy this demand, a pneumatic actuator is appropriate because it is lightweight and has natural compliance. Our research focuses on a joint angle control method for a five-fingered robot hand using low-pressure driven pneumatic actuators. This robot mimics appearance of a human hand and musculoskeletal structure, which has antagonistic muscle pairs for each joint. We proposed a biologically-inspired control method using the following parameters: “antagonistic muscle ratio” and “antagonistic muscle activity”. We also investigated the validity of the proposed method by implementing it in a one-degree-of-freedom joint model, developed a feedback control system and conducted the joint angle control.