Volume 2, Issue 3, 2017.

Advanced Mechatronics Education Concept Design at Bánki Faculty of Óbuda University

István NAGY

Mechatronics is the synergic integration of Mechanical Engineering with Electronics and Intelligent Computer Control” [1]. This definition expresses very well the modern mechatronic knowledge. At the Óbuda University the mechatronic course was firstly introduced in September 2005, what does not mean that institution has not any prior experience about mechatronics. After the introduction of the BSc level of the Mechatronic course, in September 2009 has been started the MSc level, however in part-time course only. In 2011 the English mechatronic BSc and in 2015 the MSc course was launched. These constant renewals leaded the professors to the continuous curriculum developments. This paper presents a new mechatronics education design concept. The new viewpoints introduced in this plan highlight the importance of project works and fulfil all the key criteria and international requirements.

Implementation of an FPGA-Based Actual Observer for Active Suspension Control

Laszlo SCHAFFER, Szilveszter PLETL, Zoltan KINCSES

In the case of vehicle automation the central role is played by the security, the reliability and the convenience. The elements used in a suspension system with fixed parameter values do not provide the desired safety and comfort conditions in all circumstances. In this paper an active suspension system is presented, which is capable of minimal sensor information based efficient intervention. The proposed architecture enables a cost-effective and energy efficient implementation of an actual observer. In this work the mathematical model, the analysis of the model, the measured variables, the design of the actual observer and the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) implementation if the actual observer is presented. The accuracy and the correct operation of the proposed FPGA-based actual observer controlled active suspension system are validated by simulations.

Control and Testing of a New Soft Pneumatic Gripper with Optimised Design for Soft Robotics

Sergiu-Dan STAN, Alin PLEŞA, Emil TEUŢAN, Mircea BARA

The paper describes the design, control and testing of a new soft pneumatic gripper. As soft pneumatic actuators are an essential component of soft robotic systems it’s important to develop a process cheaper and easy to produce. The developed gripper is made out of soft, stretchable silicon that is powered by air. Silicones are used in numerous engineering applications; in this case it extends under input pressure. Thus offering intrinsic advantages: robustness to uncertainty, easiness for manipulating a wider range of objects, easiness interactions with objects from static environment. Pressure is measured with the help of MPX4250AP pressure sensor. Results obtained present the feasibility and reliability of the proposed mechatronic system in actuating and controlling the silicone based soft pneumatic gripper to realize and conduct bending and grasping motions. During the research, it were obtained the qualitative measurements of the bending distance and pressure. The proposed electronic design is made to be low-cost, easy to replicate and can be integrated easily in any specific soft robotic system which requires pneumatic driving.

Fuzzy Control of an Antagonistic System Driven by Pneumatic Muscle Actuators

Sándor CSIKÓS, Szabolcs BALASSA, József SÁROSI

Due to high nonlinearity of pneumatic systems pneumatic artificial muscles (PAMs) also known as pneumatic muscle actuators (PMAs) are difficult to control, therefore a robust control is necessary to achieve the desired motion or position. Several control methods have been applied to control different systems driven by PMAs. The early control methods were based on classical linear controllers and then some modern control strategies have been developed (e. g. adaptive, fuzzy, neural network, sliding mode and others). In this paper the possibility of using a fuzzy control system on a variation of the classical ball and beam setup is presented. On the basis of experimental results, especially the achieved overshot the following is concluded: the fuzzy control is a promising method for controlling pneumatic servo-systems actuated by PMAs.

Preparation of a Machine Vision System’s Environment for an Automotive Manufacturing Technology Research

Attila TROHÁK, Zsófia FORGÁCS

This article presents a machine vision system that is part of an experimental system that follows Industry 4.0 directives. The main task of the equipment is to determine the orientation of a plastic part on the equipment’s working plane and to move the part to the target location. For preparing the environment of the machine vision system, the authors had to make considerations about the camera, the sensor types and the lighting features of the system. This is an important step for making decisions when choosing the devices for the development.