Low Air Consumption Control In Pneumatic Positioning System

摘要

The paper presents an idea of an open-loop control of a pneumatic positioning system consisting of a pneumatic cylinder, inexpensive measurement system and four on-off switching valves. A strategy of two or three pulses on-off control trajectory for implementation of a determined piston displacement without an overshoot is presented. Parameters for the control are determined by the application of an artificial neural nets that have to be trained before the application. A control error resulting from open-loop control method can be removed in an adaptive way, proposed in the paper. The strategy is nearly time-optimum one and results in a short control time, quiet valves action and significant reduction of the compressed air consumption in comparison to other pneumatic positioning systems. The idea of this way of control was tested in many simulation experiments and in tests performed in a laboratory. It can be a basis for attractive, low-cost, economic positioning systems.