GMSARN International Conference on Sustainable Development: Issues and Prospects for the GMS 12-14 Nov.

2008

Control of Pneumatic Actuator using Microcontroller

Aye Aye Nyein and Khin Kyu Kyu Win

Abstract— An application developed in low weight, low cost, and small scale model of a manipulator using pneumatic
actuator is presented. In this application, microcontroller can be used for controlling predefined sequences of opening and
closing of solenoid values to activate the pneumatic cylinders. This system consists of two doubling acting cylinder with five
two-way solenoid values through a 8-bit PIC board. There will be difficult to control the movement of pneumatic cylinder
slowly. The air power supply can be adjusted to have the best movement. To be first and accurate control of pneumatic
actuator, experimental tests are carried out to investigate the behavior of interacting with microcontroller and solenoid
valves. The controlling performance shows that a fast accurate and inexpensive pneumatic actuator system is developed
using inexpensive on/off solenoid valves. Several experimental tests are carried out to evaluate the microcontroller of the
control system and the performances of a control algorithm implemented. The actuator's overall performance is comparable
to that achieved by others researchers using servo valves.

Keywords— Actuator, Microcontroller, pneumatic and valve control

displacement of actuators. They also provide the power

1. INTRODUCTION
Pneumatic actuators offer several advantages for
positioning applications such as low cost, high power to
weight ratio, ease of maintenance, cleanliness. So their
use is particularly well suited for those applications where
speed and lightweight are critical. Unfortunately
pneumatic actuators are subject to high fiction forces,
deadband (due to stiction) and dead time (due to the
compressibility of the air). These non linearities actuator
is difficult to achieve.
Pneumatic systems use compressed air as the working
fluid pneumatic actuators generate much lower forces.
When source of compressed air are readily available, as
they often are in engineering-related facilities, pneumatic
actuators may be a good choice. Doubling acting or single
acting pneumatic cylinders are ideal for providing low
force linear motion between two well defined endpoints.
Since air is compressible, pneumatic cylinders are not
typically used for applications requiring accurate motion
between the end points.
Cylinders are most commonly used for pneumatic
drives. They are characterized by robust construction, a
large range of types, simple installation and favorable
performance. As a result of these benefits, pneumatics is
used in a wide range of applications. The actuation
systems are the elements of the control systems which are
responsible for transforming the output of a
microprocessor or control system into a controlling action
on a machine or device. The motion or action is created
by a force or torque that results in acceleration and
needed to position the final control element. In robot
application, the pneumatic cylinders are mainly used for
arm movement. The pneumatic cylinder is an example of
a linear actuator. The doubling action cylinder is able to
carry out work in both directions of motion.
Using inexpensive on/off solenoid valves, a fast
accurate and inexpensive pneumatic actuator system [3],
[4], [5], [6], [7]. Servo valves tend to be bulky compared
to compact and lightweight solenoid valves. Experimental
tests were carried out to investigate on the behavior of the
system with two on/off solenoid valves to make a
position control on a pneumatic cylinder.
2. SYSTEM DESCRIPTION
A schematic diagram of the control system is shown in
Fig. 1. Three doubling acting cylinders are stroke and
bore placed equipped with a 8-bit PIC. The payload on
the actuator rcd can be modified with additional masses
to investigate the influence of weight and inertial force on
the control system.
Three two-way on/off valves normally open control the
double-acting cylinders; the valves were selected based
on their low cost, fast response and high flow
coefficients. They are driven by the PIC controller trough
a power drive unit. The pneumatic power supply of the
three valves is stabilized by means of pressure regulator.
Flow controls are added to the cylinder inlets to filter out
the vibration caused by the pulsing of the solenoid valves.
A manual pressure reducer is added to balance the pull
difference acting on the rod.

Aye Aye Nyein is with the West Yangon Technological University,

Myanmar (corresponding author to provide phone: +095-09-506-5443;
Fax: +95-067-404015; E-mail: electronicone@gmail.com).
Khin Khin Kyu Win was with West Yangon Technological
University, Myanmar. She is now a Lecturer. E-mail:
khinkyukyuwin@gmail.com.

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 actuators and the software program. The output signal
from the microcontroller is too small to control the
solenoid valves. The solenoid valves activate the
pneumatic cylinders respectively as predefined sequence
in the controller. The driver circuit is used to interface the
microcontroller with solenoid valves. The driver circuit
consists of the dirlington pair (TIP110 NPN transistor,
100KΩ and 1kΩ resistors). The collector output of
TIP110 desires the solenoid valves when the base current
of the transistor. TIP110 having the high current gain is
used to raise the output current of PIC.

5. EXPERIMENTAL TESTS

Fig.1. Schematic Diagram of the Control System Several test were performed to investigate the response
and to evaluate the control performance for robot arm
3. HARDWARE DESIGN movement. The robot is a three-link manipulator with
four degrees of freedom. The arrangement of the joints
The system composed of microcontrollers, I/O terminals and their range of movement are basically modeled like
and solenoid. The PIC 16F84A microcontroller is the human arm. The pneumatic artuators are relatively
selected as target microcontroller because it has a built – light, the arm weights is only 2 kg and lifts about 1 kg.
in ADC, SDI and SPI modules. On the other hand this Because of its lightness and complaint characteristics, this
controller has enough I/O ports for expending the system. arm can be employed for several applications. It is
The first step in selecting a cylinder is to determine the intended to use in industrial, around the heavy machinery,
force (pressure) required to move the load. Another step for backhoe tasks. The demensions and range of joint
includes the working fluid pressure, flow rate, the value movement are given in (Table 2).
size and the oversize factor. The supply of the pneumatic
cylinder recommends selecting a cylinder with 20℅ extra Table 2. Dimensions of the Links and Motion Rrange of the
force for slow moving load and 100℅ force for fast Joints
moving loads. Pneumatic cylinder 1 and 2 (CDQSB12-
J2778) have diameter 15 mm and stroke length 45 mm. Arm 1 Angle ±60۠
Pneumatic cylinder 2 (CDJ2D 10-30-B) have diameter 10 (ARM) Length 340 mm
mm and stroke length 30 mm. Pneumatic cylinder 3
(CDJ2D 10-35-B) have diameter 10 mm and stroke Arm 2 Angle ±30۠
length 35 mm. (BOOM) Length 250 mm

Arm 3 Angle ±60۠

4. SOFTWARE
(BUCKET) Length 170 mm
To design the contol algorithms, 16F84A controller is
programmed by using MPLAB IDE. The program with The compressed air of constant pressure supply
assembly language is created to control the predefined throughout the experiment. First, the air is drawn from an
sequence in ( Table 1) of pneumatic cylinders. The in-house air compressor at about 90 psi. The compressor
assembling procedure starts on the PIC assembler (IC is separated to place with the robot. To supply air power,
Prog 1.05) MPLAB software. the air pipe line is used between the compressor and
solenoid valves. During the experiments, the send is
carried by the robot bucket and the robot also can move
Table 1. Microcontroller to Solenoid Valve Mapping
forward, reverse, and left or right. The robot arm can also
operate as the predefined procedure for pick and place.
Solenoid Solenoid Solenoid
Cylinder Cylinder Cylinder 6. CONCLUSION
Valve 3 Valve 2 Valve 1
3 2 1 An application may be developed in the Mechatronic
(RP2) (RP1) (RP0)
Laboratory. It is a fast, accurate and inexpensive PIC
1 1 0 Forward Forward Return controlled pneumatic actuator that may be applied to a
variety of practical positioning applications. The
1 1 1 Forward Forward Forward
performances of the system were investigated through the
0 0 1 Return Return Return experimental tests in application of robot movement. The
sequence control was implemented using solenoid valves
0 0 0 Return Return Return
driven by a PIC Base control algorithm and a
1 0 0 Forward Return Return experimental tuning method for the controller was
successfully adopted. By using the microcontroller, the
1 1 0 Forward Forward Return
manipulator will move sequently as predefined program.
1 1 1 Forward Forward Forward If the sensor is fitted at manipulator, the arm will move
automatically according to the return signal of sensor.
It is used for interaction between the pneumatic .

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 ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This research paper couldn’t have been accomplished
without help and guidance from the people who served on
the committee of GMSARN. Especially, it is worth to
express the deepest gratitude to Daw Khin Kyu Kyu Win,
Leucture, Department of Electronic Engineering, West
Yangon Technological University and all members of her
family.

REFERENCES
[1] Euring, I.C. 1989. Engineering Applications of
Pneumatics And Hydraulics. Tuner Recipient of the
''1997 PALNET ENGINEERING OF THE YEAR'
Award.
[2] Michael, V.D.1992. "A Pneumatic Manipulator Used
i Direct Contact with An Operator" Department of
Mechnical Engineering, Vrije University.
[3] Noritsugu, 'Development of PWM mode electro-
pneumatic servomechanism part II: Position Control
of a pneumatic cylinder', Journal of Fluid Control
vol.17 no 2 pp. 7-28.
[4] Paul A.K., Mishra J.K., Radke M.G., September
1994 'Reduced Order Sliding Mode Control for
Pneumatic Actuator' IEEE Transcations on Control
Systems Technology Vol.2 N.3.
[5] Van Verseved R.B., Bone G.M., September 1997
'Accurte position control of a pneumatic actuator
using on/off solenoid valves Transcations on
Mechatronics, Vol.2 N.3
[6] Figliolini G., Srli M., ' A pressure control system
with digital electrovalves modulated in pwm and
controlled via PIC', 6th Int. Workshop on Robotics in
Alpe-Adria Danube Region RAAD'97