Society of Robots - Robot Forum

Mechanics and Construction => Mechanics and Construction => Topic started by: neopj3 on December 05, 2007, 11:32:22 AM

Title: Air muscles
Post by: neopj3 on December 05, 2007, 11:32:22 AM
Anyone have much experence with these.  I built a few and they kick ass.  each one can pull/lift 10# easy at around 50psi.  kolbalt tool makes a neat little portable regulator that uses paintball tanks as the air supply. only problem is I can't find air valves small enough and cheap enough.  any one run into this problem before?
Title: Re: Air muscles
Post by: neopj3 on December 07, 2007, 12:33:56 PM
looks like I've got a tutorial on my hands.  nice ;D
Title: Re: Air muscles
Post by: Admin on December 12, 2007, 08:19:36 AM
We get someone asking about air muscles about once every 2 or 3 months, mostly on how to do it.

A tutorial would make a great answer ;D
Title: Re: Air muscles
Post by: richard mackie on December 12, 2007, 11:32:55 PM
Ive seen those air muscles a few times and i think I am going to try them eventually but having the tutorial would defiantly make me feel a little better about attempting it
Title: Re: Air muscles
Post by: HDL_CinC_Dragon on December 13, 2007, 11:10:22 AM
The only problem I have with air muscles is that they dont seem quite so reliable yet. Ive seen a few little demos of some and the muscles appear to steal a significant amount of air from eachother if your moving more than one at a time. It looks like you would need a lot of pressure in all your lines to account for that... maybe I could be wrong in this thinking?
Title: Re: Air muscles
Post by: neopj3 on December 14, 2007, 01:40:29 PM
no your right, sorta.  the trick is to have a main tank, then a series of pressure sensors and one way valves to keep the lines in check.  easy huh ;)
Title: Re: Air muscles
Post by: neopj3 on December 14, 2007, 01:41:00 PM
I'll work on that tut this weekend maybe.  for sure over the holiday.
Title: Re: Air muscles
Post by: Admin on December 14, 2007, 01:59:29 PM
Quote
The only problem I have with air muscles is that they dont seem quite so reliable yet. Ive seen a few little demos of some and the muscles appear to steal a significant amount of air from eachother if your moving more than one at a time. It looks like you would need a lot of pressure in all your lines to account for that...
Only because the mechanical engineer on that project improperly spec'ed out the required pressure in the system :P

So if you have two muscles, each requiring 10 units of pressure, that means your compressor needs to deal out 20 units. If the muscles leak 2 units each, thats 24 units of pressure needed. If your compressor supplies less than that, then yea, the muscles will be much weaker when both are on.

But there could have been other reasons for the under spec'ing, such as financial reasons (bigger compressors are more expensive), or the system was not fully understood during the design phase (which happens often in research situations).
Title: Re: Air muscles
Post by: nottoooily on December 15, 2007, 04:31:55 PM
Got any photos/videos? How about speed, are they comparable to human muscles?

Anyone have much experence with these.  I built a few and they kick ass.  each one can pull/lift 10# easy at around 50psi.  kolbalt tool makes a neat little portable regulator that uses paintball tanks as the air supply. only problem is I can't find air valves small enough and cheap enough.  any one run into this problem before?
Title: Re: Air muscles
Post by: neopj3 on December 17, 2007, 10:51:40 AM
the above questions are what i'm working on.  trig took a lot of my time and so did my new job.  I've got a few ideas of uses for them, like using them instead of servos.  .... ... . .
Title: Re: Air muscles
Post by: Hawaii00000 on February 17, 2009, 01:28:07 AM
We're still waiting for that tutorial :p
Title: Re: Air muscles
Post by: HDL_CinC_Dragon on February 17, 2009, 02:04:09 AM
2 years this has been dead... 2 years...
Title: Re: Air muscles
Post by: HDL_CinC_Dragon on February 18, 2009, 12:43:17 AM
2 years...
Title: Re: Air muscles
Post by: robot01 on February 24, 2009, 10:05:02 PM
oh .my god.2 years.... :-\