Investigation into the dynamics and control of a pneumatically powered artificial elbow†

†Communicated by Professor J. C. West.

Abstract

The design of compensators for a control system requires a knowledge of the dynamics of such systems. In this paper a pneumatic elbow is analysed mathematically and the development of an analogue of the system is described.

The elbow was built as part of an arm prosthesis to examine the effect of optional locks on the input controls. The elbow was found to exhibit a limit cycle and various stabilization techniques were tried on an empirical basis. It was seen that a greater appreciation of the equations of motion was necessary to predict the response of the elbow and the resulting analysis is presented in this paper.

Notes

†Communicated by Professor J. C. West.