Robotic Actuators

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Process Control System

Transformation Process

Continuous and Discrete Continuous and Discrete

Parameters Variables

Actuators Sensors

DAC ADC

Controller
Output Devices Input Devices

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 Actuator
Actuation is the process of conversion of energy
to mechanical form. Device that accomplishes
this conversion is call actuator.
The input is generally electrical signal /fluid
power and output is linear or rotary motion.
Electrical signal can be low power or high
power.
In case of low power signal, additional circuitry
is required to drive the actuator otherwise it
can be driven directly.
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 Actuator Control
Robots are classified by control method into servo and
non-servo robots.
Non-servo robots are essentially open-loop devices whose
movements are limited to predetermined mechanical stops.
Servo robots use closed-loop computer control to determine
their motion
An open-loop controller (or non-feedback controller) is a
type of controller which computes its input into a system
using only the current state and its model of the system.
The system does not observe the output of the processes
that it is controlling.
Controller Motor
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 Open Loop Controller
• Open-loop control is useful for well-defined systems
where the relationship between input and the resultant
state can be modeled by a mathematical formula
• For example determining the voltage to be fed to an
electric motor that drives a constant load, in order to
achieve a desired speed would be a good application of
open-loop control
• An open-loop controller is often used in simple processes
because of its simplicity and low-cost, especially in
systems where feedback is not critical
• Generally, to obtain a more accurate or more adaptive
control, it is necessary to feed the output of the system
back to the inputs of the controller
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 Closed Loop Controller
A closed-loop controller uses feedback to control states or
outputs of a dynamical system

Output
Input Controller Motor Measurement Output

Feedback

Process inputs have an effect on the process outputs, which

is measured with sensors and processed by the controller;
the result is used as input to the process, closing the loop

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 Closed Loop Controller
Closed-loop controllers have the following advantages
over open-loop controllers:
• Disturbance rejection (such as unmeasured friction

in a motor)
• Guaranteed performance even with model
uncertainties, when the model structure does not
match perfectly the real process and the model
parameters are not exact
• Unstable processes can be stabilized

• Reduced sensitivity to parameter variations

• Improved reference tracking performance

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 Mechanism
Logical
Signal Processing Electric Hydraulic
Signal
& Amplification Pneumatic Final Actuation
Element

Actuator
Sensor

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 Actuator Functions

The links and the joints of a robot are the skeleton part
whereas the actuators are the muscles which enables
to change the configuration of the robot.
The actuator must have enough power to accelerate and
decelerate the links, to carry the load, accurate
positioning, reliable and easy to maintain.
Actuators output can be position or rate i.e. linear
displacement or velocity. Actuation can be from few
microns to few meters.

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 Types of Actuators
Some of the most common actuators are:
• Electric motors, the most common actuators in

mobile robots, used both to provide location by

powering wheels or legs, and for manipulation by
actuating robot arms
• Artificial muscles of various types, none of which
are very good approximations of living muscles
• Pneumatic and hydraulic actuators, used in
industry for large manipulation tasks but seldom
for mobile robots
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 Selection of Actuators
The type of actuator suitable for
particular robotic application
is selected based on the
following criteria:
• Accuracy and resolution
• Power required for actuation
• Cost of actuation device
• Dynamic response
• Maintenance cost

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The most common robotic actuators are electric
servo motors.
Hydraulic actuators are used for large robots
which requires larger force or torque to
manipulate.
Pneumatic systems are used in robots that have
½ degree of freedom on-off type joints.
Smart actuators are used for scientific research
and micro scale robots.
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 Components of An Electric Motor

The principle components of an electric motor

are:
• North and south magnetic poles to provide a
strong magnetic field. Being made of bulky ferrous
material they traditionally form the outer casing of
the motor and collectively form the stator
• An armature, which is a cylindrical ferrous core
rotating within the stator and carries a large
number of windings made from one or more
conductors

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 Components Of An Electric Motor Cont’d
A commutator, which rotates with the armature and
consists of copper contacts attached to the end of the
windings
Brushes in fixed positions and in contact with the
rotating commutator contacts. They carry direct
current to the coils, resulting in the required motion
Stator
(Rotating)
Commutator Armature

Brushes

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 How Do Electric Motors Work?
The classic DC motor has a rotating armature in the
form of an electromagnet
A rotary switch called a commutator reverses the
direction of the electric current twice every cycle, to
flow through the armature so that the poles of the
electromagnet push and pull against the permanent
magnets on the outside of the motor
As the poles of the armature electromagnet pass the
poles of the permanent magnets, the commutator
reverses the polarity of the armature electromagnet.
During that instant of switching polarity, inertia keeps
the motor going in the proper direction
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 How Do Electric Motors Work? Cont’d

A simple DC electric motor: when the coil is powered,

a magnetic field is generated around the armature. The
left side of the armature is pushed away from the left
magnet and drawn toward the right, causing rotation
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How Do Electric Motors Work? Cont’d

The armature continues to rotate

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 How Do Electric Motors Work? Cont’d

When the armature becomes horizontally aligned, the

commutator reverses the direction of current through
the coil, reversing the magnetic field. The process then
repeats.
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 Actuator Dynamics
A DC-motor basically works on the principle that a
current carrying conductor in a magnetic field
experiences a force.
If the stator produces a radial magnetic flux and the flux
due to the current in the rotor will be a torque on the
rotor causing it to rotate.

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 DC Motor Cont’d
dia
u  Ra i a  La  eb , eb  back - emf voltage
dt   Bω
Tmotor  Jω
Power Transformation: R L
a a
B
Torque-Current: Tmotor  Kt i a ia
u dc
Voltage-Speed: eb  K bω 

where Kt: torque constant, Kb: velocity constant For an ideal

motor Kt  K b
Combing previous equations results in the following mathematical
model:
 dia
La  Ra i a  K b   u
 dt

Jω   Bω - Kt i a  0
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 DC Motor Cont’d
Applying Laplace transform for both equations:

The Laplace transform becomes:

Solving the above equations simultaneously, we can obtain the

transfer function that maps the input armature voltage to the
speed of the motor

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 Reduction Gears
Hydraulic actuators are directly attached to the
links, which simplifies the design, reduces
weight, cost, backlash and rotating inertia of
joints.
On the other hand, motors are used in conjunction
with reduction gears to increase torque and reduce
their speed.
Consider a set of reduction gears with a reduction
ratio of N, a load with inertia I, is connected to a
motor with inertia as shown in figure.

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Gear System

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24
The torque balance equation becomes,

The effective inertia of the load felt by the motor is

proportional to the square of the reduction gear ratio:
So, the motor will only feel a fraction of the actual
load.
With high gear ratios, the inertial effects of the load can
actually be ignored in the control system of the robot.
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 Dc-motor Control

• Controller + H-bridge
• PWM-control
• Speed control by
controlling motor
current=torque
• Efficient small
components
• PID control

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 H-bridge Operation

Allows a motor to be deriven in both direction

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 Stepper Motors
When incremental rotary motion is required in a robot,
it is possible to use stepper motors
A stepper motor possesses the ability to move a
specified number of revolutions or fraction of a
revolution in order to achieve a fixed and consistent
angular movement
This is achieved by increasing the numbers of poles on
both rotor and stator
Additionally, soft magnetic material with many teeth on
the rotor and stator cheaply multiplies the number of
poles (reluctance motor)
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 Stepper Motors

360
Step angle is given by: : 
ns
where ns is the number of steps for the stepper motor (integer)

Total angle through which the motor rotates (Am) is given by:
where np = number of pulses received by the motor. Am  n p
2f p
Angular velocity is given by:  where fp = pulse frequency
ns
Speed of rotation is given by: N 
60 f p
ns

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 Stepper Motors Cont’d
This figure illustrates the design of a
stepper motor, arranged with four magnetic
poles arranged around a central rotor
Note that the teeth on the rotor have a
slightly tighter spacing to those on the
stator, this ensures that the two sets of teeth
are close to each other but not quite aligned
throughout
Movement is achieved when power is
applied for short periods to successive
magnets Where pairs of teeth are least
offset, the electromagnetic pulse causes
alignment and a small rotation is achieved,
typically 1-2o
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How Does A Stepper Motor Work?

The top electromagnet (1) is charged, attracting the

topmost four teeth of a sprocket.

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 How Does A Stepper Motor Work? Cont’d

The top electromagnet (1) is turned off, and the right

electromagnet (2) is charged, pulling the nearest four
teeth to the right. This results in a rotation of 3.6°
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 How Does A Stepper Motor Work? Cont’d

The bottom electromagnet (3) is charged; another 3.6°

rotation occurs.

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How Does A Stepper Motor Work? Cont’d

The left electromagnet (4) is enabled, rotating again by

3.6°. When the top electromagnet (1) is again charged,
the teeth in the sprocket will have rotated by one tooth
position; since there are 25 teeth, it will take 100 steps
to make a full rotation.
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 Advantages of Stepper Motor
Stepper motors have several advantages:
• Their control is directly compatible with digital

technology
• They can be operated open loop by counting steps,

with an accuracy of 1 step.

• They can be used as holding devices, since they
exhibit a high holding torque when the rotor is
stationary

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 Torque-Speed Curve
Torque, T
Load
Stepper
AC Servo
DC Servo

Operating
Points

Speed, ω

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 Electric Motors: Mounting
When used with rotary joint systems, motors can produce
torque by being mounted directly on the joints or by pulling
on cables
The cables can be thought of as tendons that connect the
actuator (muscle) to the link being moved
Since cables can apply force only when pulled, it is
necessary to use a pair of cables to obtain bidirectional
motion around a joint, this implies mechanical complexity
Mounting motors directly on joints allows for bidirectional
rotation, but such mounting may increase the physical size
and weight of the joint, and this may be undesirable in
some applications
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 Electric Motors: Linear Movement

The fact that electric motors produce rotational motion

raises an issue with regard to their use in robots
For linear translation it is necessary to translate
rotational to linear motion
• For example, prismatic joints require linear

translation rather than rotation from the motor

Leadscrews, belt-and-pulley systems, rack-and-pinion
systems, or gears and chains are typically used to
transform rotational to translational motion

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 Artificial Muscles
• During the past forty years a
number of attempts have been
made to build artificial muscles
• Muscles contract when
activated, since they are
attached to bones on two
sides of a joint, the longitudinal
shortening produces joint
rotation
• Bilateral motion requires pairs
of muscles attached on opposite
sides of a joint are required to
produce 39
Artificial Muscles: McKibben Type
The McKibben muscle was the
earliest attempt at constructing an
artificial muscle
This device consisted of a rubber
bladder surrounded by a sleeve
made of nylon fibers in a helical
weave
When activated by pressurized air,
the sleeve prevented it from
expanding lengthwise, and thus the
device shortened like living muscles
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Artificial Muscles: McKibben Type

In the 1960s there were attempts to use

McKibben muscles to produce movements in
mechanical structures strapped to nonfunctional
arms of quadriplegics
The required compressed air was carried in a
tank mounted on the person’s wheelchair
These experiments were never completely
successful

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Artificial Muscles: McKibben Type
Since the 1960s there has been
several other attempts to develop
improved McKibben type artificial
muscles:
• (Brooks, 1977) developed an
artificial muscle for control of the
arms of the humanoid torso Cog
• (Pratt and Williamson 1995)
developed artificial muscles for
control of leg movements in a biped
walking robot
However, it is fair to say that no artificial muscles
developed to date can match the properties of animal
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muscles
Artificial Muscles: Shape Memory Alloys

Shape memory alloys (SMAs) have unusual

mechanical properties
Typically, they contract when heated, which is the
opposite to what standard metals do when heated
(expand)
Furthermore, they produce thermal movement
(contraction) one hundred times greater than that
produced by standard metals

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 Artificial Muscles: Shape Memory Alloys

Because they contract when heated, SMA provide a

source of actuation for robots
After contraction, the material gradually returns to its
original length when the source of activation is
removed and it is allowed to cool
SMAs have two major problems when used as artificial
muscles:
• They cannot generate very large forces

• They cool slowly and so recover their original

length slowly, thus reducing the frequency
response of any artificial muscle in which they are
employed 44
 Northeastern University’s Robot Lobster

A robot lobster developed

at Northeastern University
used SMAs very cleverly
• The force levels required
for the lobster’s legs are
not excessive for SMAs
• Because the robot is used underwater cooling is

supplied naturally by seawater

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 Artificial Muscles: Electroactive Polymers

Like SMAs, Electroactive Polymers (EAPs) also change

their shape when electrically stimulated
The advantages of EAPs for robotics are that they are
able to emulate biological muscles with a high degree of
toughness, large actuation strain, and inherent vibration
damping
Unfortunately, the force actuation and mechanical
energy density of EAPs are relatively low

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 Hydraulic System
Hydraulic actuators offers a high power-to-weight ratio,
large forces at low speeds both linear and rotary actuation.
It is applicable for very large robots and civil service
robots.
By controlling the
volume of the fluid
going into the
cylinder the total
displacement can
be controlled and
controlling the rate
in which the fluid
is sent to the
cylinder, the
velocity can be
controlled.

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 Pneumatic Systems
Pneumatic systems are widely used in industrial automation
using pressurized air as a source of power to drive linear
and rotary cylinders controlled by solenoid valves.
Common Applications
 Push-pull
 Pick-n-place

Lifting
 Holding

 Air-driven hand tools

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 Pneumatic and Hydraulic Actuators
• Large manipulators in industry frequently employ
hydraulic drives, since such drives provide a higher
torque-to-weight ratio than electric motors
• However, because of the maintenance problems
associated with pressurized oil (including leaks),
hydraulic motors are not used in smaller mobile
robots
• Pneumatic drives have been used as actuators in the
past but are not currently popular
• Air is compressible, resulting in nonlinear behavior
of the actuator
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