The Research And Applications Of A Simplified Accurate Positioning Pneumatic Manipulator

With the development of modern pneumatic technology, pneumatic servo control technology and computer control technology, pneumatic manipulator as typical mechanics, electronics, pneumatic technology integrated equipment, with cheap, simple, easy to maintain and resistant capability of advantages in the field of industrial automation is becoming increasingly widespread application. As a mechanical hand,the characteristic of the pneumatic manipulator is that the driving force transmission medium is compressed air,the transmission equipment is cylinder, gas motor or other pneumatic devices.This paper describes the development of a simplified accurate positioning pneumatic manipulator. The manipulator has three direction movements along X, Y and Z coordinates, sucking vacuum is the executing device responsible for transit of work pieces. In X, Y coordinates, conventional pneumatic switching valves combined with rodless cylinder and positional controller can achieve precise location of positioning in arbitrary itinerary (positioning accuracy achieved±0.5mm).There are two components including PLC and PC in the pneumatic manipulator control system, PLC control the electromagnetic valves and the position controller; PC as the surveillance,send control orders to PLC. PLC and PC achieve the communication with RS232 agreement. There are two components in the pneumatic manipulator control software including PLC program and human-computer interface program.Based on the theoretical research and practical experiment in this paper, we put forward a new working principle and design method to realize a simplified accurate positioning pneumatic manipulator with certain precision, and a shooting machine which is designed by using this manipulator has come into operation smoothly for several months in Dongguan Science Museum since the end of 2005.