Torque characteristics of pneumatic muscle actuator with eccentric pulley

Abstract

The movement of the pneumatic actuator with artificial muscles in antagonistic connection is typically transmitted through the circular pulley rotating about its center. But torque of such actuator decreases with increasing rotation of the actuator arm due to the non-linear decrease of muscles forces according to their contraction. By application of the eccentric pulley instead of circular pulley a smaller torque decrease can be obtained. In the paper there are described torque characteristics of such pneumatic muscle actuator.