The disadvantage of current knee braces ranges from high cost for customization to a loss in physical mobility and limited rehabilitative value. One approach to solving this problem is to use a Magnetorheological (MR) device to make the knee brace have a controllable resistance. Our design solution is to replace the manufacturer's joint with an rotary MR fluid based shear damper. The device is designed based on a maximum yield stress, a corresponding magnetic field, a torque and the MR fluid viscosity. The analytical and experimental results show the advantages and the feasibility of using the proposed MR based controllable knee braces.
KEYWORDS: Actuators, Control systems, Smart materials, Performance modeling, Lead, Control systems design, Data modeling, Systems modeling, Magnetism, Microfluidics
High bandwidth actuation systems that are capable of simultaneously producing relatively large forces and displacements are required for use in automobiles and other industrial applications. Conventional hydraulic actuation mechanisms used in automotive brakes and clutches are complex, inefficient and have poor control robustness. These lead to reduced fuel economy, controllability issues and other disadvantages. This paper involves the design, development, testing and control of a two-stage hybrid actuation mechanism by combining classical actuators like DC motors and advanced smart material actuators like piezoelectric actuators. The paper also discusses the development of a robust control methodology using the Internal Model Control (IMC) principle and emphasizes the robustness property of this control methodology by comparing and studying simulation and experimental results.
Force feedback is a new technology that has great potential in human-machine interfaces. While guiding the end effector of a robot through an environment using a hand-held actuator, force feedback is needed to make the user feel the environment conditions like stiffness along which the end effector moves. This along with the already available visual feedback will allow the user to guide the robot exactly along the path that he or she intends thereby enhancing the performance. Easily controllable actuators that give quick response at the user end are needed here. This paper demonstrates the effectiveness of MR fluid devices in such force feedback applications. The force-feedback experiment includes a simple setup that depicts a typical situation wherein a user controls the movement of an external linear hydraulic actuator using a MR sponge damper. Force and displacement sensors sense the environment conditions along which the end effector of the hydraulic actuator moves. This information is then used to control the MR damper to provide appropriate force feedback to the user. The setup is tested with different environments like springs with various stiffnesses and for extreme cases with mechanical stops thereby demonstrating the flexibility in using MR sponge dampers for various force feedback applications.
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