Dynamic Control of a Large Scale of Pneumatic Multichain Systems

Abstract

Abstract The aim of this paper is to propose a general principle able to manage the supervision, coordination, and control problems of a large scale of multichain structures in dynamic and interacting tasks. The main originality lays in its modular feature. The number of chains and of joint per chain are indeed not restricted. The only assumption is that all the chains are linked to a principal element from which the dynamic stability will be computed. This is for example the case for multi‐finger and multi‐legged structures for which respectively the palm and the trunk represent the principal element. The principle consists in controlling the stability of this element and distributing the effort on the other chains to maintain the stability of the whole. To increase the compliant feature, we consider that each joint is pneumatically actuated. Each joint is then dynamically controlled to ensure the asymptotic stability of the local chain it belongs to. A global architecture is presented where each part is detailed. An example is then displayed showing the performances of a two‐legged robot in the standing posture under external perturbation effects. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.