Hello, i need help from someone who knows abut pneumatic muscle like from Festo,
I need to test 4 different muscle MAS and DPMS from festo some MCkibbean muscle and one made by a student, so we bought pressure regulator to measure pressure and LVDT transducer to measure displacement maybe change to linear potetnionemtr, and choose one for our project
So we need to set presser at different value from 0 to 6 bar, the best use is to buy pressure proportional regulator right so if ve have regulator range to for ex to 10 bar with analog input(0-10V) if we set 6volt we got pressure at 6bar direct to muscle right? What are the advantage of proportional regulator over valves? Because price is high and if we don’t need steering muscle we can save some money on future projects
, and we set value on regulator when regulator is closed, nesct after set value we open valve so the muscle contract?
Or use to valve 2/2 one for inlet and one for outlet, so after set presser we open inlet valve when muscle contract we can close it right pressure will stay const? and next after measurement we open outlet valve?
Hmmmm. Those festo muscles look quite nifty (https://www.festo.com/cat/en-us_us/data/doc_enus/PDF/US/DMSP-MAS_ENUS.PDF)! This is actually the first I had seen them. I haven’t seen anyone use them on an FRC bot. Unless one of the other mentors around this forum has experience, you may not get many answers specific to these.
In general, FRC robots will use valves (on/off digital control) and pressure regulators/needle valves per mechanism to tune force and motion at the end mechanism. The valves and tubing are configured such that when one side of a cylinder has pressure, the other is exhausted to the atmosphere. The pressure regulators and needle valves control the force and airflow at each end of the cylinder, to achieve the desired motion profile.
I’ve always thought it would be fun to use some analog-controlled valves to vary the pressure at each end of the cylinder, and use some sensors to servo the endpoint of the mechanism to a specific (analog) location, but my understanding is this is far from a trivial problem. There are some COTS solutions for this I’ve seen, but nothing cheap or light enough to justify putting on an FRC robot.
My best understanding about what you are asking us is to help design a testing mechanism that delivers a few different amounts of air pressure, so you can test the displacement and force of a variety of pneumatic muscles.
If this is what you are after, I would suggest buying:
Search the FIRST web site for examples of how to hook up a legal FRC pneumatic system. I believe AndyMark.com sells everything you will need.
Design the system to send air from the pump to the storage tank, to the first T diverter (spliter). Install a regulator and a pressure gauge on each air path.
Tune each the regulator for the air pressure needed by that test cell.
You could save money and have only one cell.
Test all the muscles at a given pressure and then readjust the pressure for the next set of tests.
