Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 103428 |
| Pages (from-to) | 103428 |
| Number of pages | 1 |
| Journal | MECHATRONICS |
| Volume | 113 |
| Publication status | Published - 2026 |
Abstract
Keywords
- Pressure control, Piezoelectric valves, Gaussian process regression, Soft pneumatic actuator, Pneumatic muscle actuator
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Engineering(all)
- Control and Systems Engineering
- Engineering(all)
- Mechanical Engineering
- Computer Science(all)
- Computer Science Applications
- Engineering(all)
- Electrical and Electronic Engineering
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In: MECHATRONICS, Vol. 113, 103428, 2026, p. 103428.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Data-driven pressure controller using proportional piezoelectric valves for soft pneumatic actuators
AU - Pawluchin, A.
AU - Habich, T.-L.
AU - Seel, T.
AU - Boblan, I.
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
PY - 2026
Y1 - 2026
N2 - Pressure control forms the foundation for operating soft pneumatic actuators (SPAs). For effective motion or force control, however, the underlying pressure control must be both fast and accurate. This can be achieved either by placing the valve close to the actuator or by compensating for long pneumatic tubes through dynamic modeling. Tube compensation, however, is complex and difficult to implement, while direct valve mounting is often impractical because conventional proportional valves are large and heavy. To overcome these limitations, a compact, custom-designed 3/3-valve unit (CVU) based on Festo’s VEAE piezoelectric valves is developed. The CVU supports pressures up to 6bar, flow rates up to 70l/min and control bandwidths exceeding 9Hz. It is controlled using the presented data-driven approach, which eliminates the need for classical system identification and automatically adapts to different actuator volumes, resulting in high accuracy and simple deployment. The control scheme employs a two-stage, data-driven architecture based on single-shot Gaussian process (GP) regression. First, the inverse static flow characteristics of each valve are modeled, compensating for valve-to-valve variability without manual mass-flow identification. Second, the CVU is adapted to the actuator’s state-dependent volume, improving accuracy and robustness to external disturbances. In both stages, only the pressure derivative is used, avoiding the need for additional flow sensors or external test benches and keeping the approach lightweight and low-cost. The CVU with the data-driven control method was validated on an antagonistic pneumatic arm with pneumatic artificial muscles (PAMs) and benchmarked against a manually tuned PID controller, a feedback-linearized controller based on analytical system inversion and a commercially available VEAB valve unit. Across all tests, the CVU with GP-based control achieved highly accurate pressure tracking and disturbance rejection. All hardware (CAD) and development code (m-code) are released as open source.
AB - Pressure control forms the foundation for operating soft pneumatic actuators (SPAs). For effective motion or force control, however, the underlying pressure control must be both fast and accurate. This can be achieved either by placing the valve close to the actuator or by compensating for long pneumatic tubes through dynamic modeling. Tube compensation, however, is complex and difficult to implement, while direct valve mounting is often impractical because conventional proportional valves are large and heavy. To overcome these limitations, a compact, custom-designed 3/3-valve unit (CVU) based on Festo’s VEAE piezoelectric valves is developed. The CVU supports pressures up to 6bar, flow rates up to 70l/min and control bandwidths exceeding 9Hz. It is controlled using the presented data-driven approach, which eliminates the need for classical system identification and automatically adapts to different actuator volumes, resulting in high accuracy and simple deployment. The control scheme employs a two-stage, data-driven architecture based on single-shot Gaussian process (GP) regression. First, the inverse static flow characteristics of each valve are modeled, compensating for valve-to-valve variability without manual mass-flow identification. Second, the CVU is adapted to the actuator’s state-dependent volume, improving accuracy and robustness to external disturbances. In both stages, only the pressure derivative is used, avoiding the need for additional flow sensors or external test benches and keeping the approach lightweight and low-cost. The CVU with the data-driven control method was validated on an antagonistic pneumatic arm with pneumatic artificial muscles (PAMs) and benchmarked against a manually tuned PID controller, a feedback-linearized controller based on analytical system inversion and a commercially available VEAB valve unit. Across all tests, the CVU with GP-based control achieved highly accurate pressure tracking and disturbance rejection. All hardware (CAD) and development code (m-code) are released as open source.
KW - Pressure control
KW - Piezoelectric valves
KW - Gaussian process regression
KW - Soft pneumatic actuator
KW - Pneumatic muscle actuator
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=105030085530&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.mechatronics.2025.103428
DO - 10.1016/j.mechatronics.2025.103428
M3 - Article
VL - 113
SP - 103428
JO - MECHATRONICS
JF - MECHATRONICS
SN - 0957-4158
M1 - 103428
ER -