On the Control of a Pneumatic Actuator with E/P Valves

摘要

The objective of this study was to investigate the application of Electro-Pneumatic (E/P) valves to position control of a pneumatic cylinder. E/P's are electronic pressure regulators that can be used for direct force control. The possibility of using E/P's for position control was first investigated in [1]. The conclusion then was that performance was limited due to the nonlinearity of the E/P valve coupled with a low bandwidth. However, given the introduction of new E/P technology, it was deemed appropriate to review their application and to investigate their potential for hybrid force/position control.