How powerful is a pneumatic actuator? We were looking into a few climb systems and one of them involves using linear slides the move the robot up and then pull up a few inches with a pneumatic actuator. Would this be able to pull a robot up on the bar or is it more feasible to find something a little easier?
A pneumatic cylinder’s force is equal to the pressure (the maximum allowed is 60 psi) times the area of the bore, or F = PpiR^2
For example: 3/4” cylinder has a radius of 0.375” so F = pi*(0.375”)^2 * 60 psi = 26.5 pounds of force. If you’re retracting the cylinder you need to account for the rod affecting the area, so you would set it up like this:
F = pi(R^2-r^2)*P
Where R is cylinder radius and r is rod radius.
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Take a look at this video produced by WPILib a few years ago (ok, more than a few years ago) about pneumatics; it contains a ton of information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN9KCOp3hHA
I seem to recall our robot hung from the pyramid in 2013, using a pair of 1.5" diameter by 4"? or 6"? stroke pneumatic cylinders.
Which makes sense, from the math perspective.
Beware that you want to have a good understanding of the limitations of pneumatics, before you try this. Such as air storage requirements, solenoid valve restriction, quantity of air required to operate the cylinders, rules about how you can pre charge the storage tank(s) on the robot, etc.
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