ARTICLE IN PRESS

Control Engineering Practice 14 (2006) 999–1009

www.elsevier.com/locate/conengprac

Actuator design using biomimicry methods and a pneumatic

muscle system
D.W. Reppergera,, C.A. Phillipsb, A. Neidhard-Dollb, D.B. Reynoldsb, J. Berlinc
a
Air Force Research Laboratory, WPAFB, OH, USA
b
School of Biomedical, Human Factors and Industrial Engineering, Wright State University, Dayton, OH, USA
c
General Dynamics, Dayton, OH, USA
Received 27 May 2003; accepted 11 June 2005
Available online 19 August 2005

Abstract

An empirical and theoretical study is conducted on a special actuator termed ‘‘pneumatic muscle’’ (PM) being used in a force
control system framework. Such an actuator has similarities to biological systems and has many advantages (extremely high power/
weight, power/volume and power/energy ratios). However, due to its inherent nonlinearities, this actuator suffers from poor
position and force control. The study described here accomplishes three main goals. (1) A force control system is developed within
an open and closed loop framework to emulate how biological systems work in an agonist–antagonist framework. (2) The PM used
in the study has such strength that it excites the frame dynamics. This undesired dynamic response is then effectively cancelled using
an impedance model control scheme. (3) The PM is demonstrated to both change length yet still produce force in a controlled
manner.
r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Force control; Biomimicry design; Pneumatic muscle actuator

1. Introduction
Biomimicry (bio-inspired or emulating biological
systems in nature) provides a powerful framework from
which to design and analyze systems (Benyus, 1997). It is
difficult to argue that 3.8 billion years of evolution have
not produced a host of successful designs in nature. By
studying and emulating these successful products of the
natural world, engineers can develop and improve upon
present systems to generate both reliable and robust
applications to work in difficult environments. For
actuation control, many biological systems (e.g. the eye
muscles or arm muscles—bicepts and tricepts) work on a
principle of agonist–antagonist control.
To describe agonist–antagonist control, in Fig. 1a,
linear motion or force control can be achieved. Muscles
only generate a force via contraction, i.e. a muscle can
Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 937 2558765; fax: +1 937 2558752.
E-mail address: d.repperger@ieee.org (D.W. Repperger).
only ‘‘pull’’ and does not ‘‘push.’’ The right muscle
(agonist) in Fig. 1a contracts and simultaneously the left
muscles relaxes (antagonist, which increases in length),
thus producing a force and motion on the mass to the
right. In Fig. 1b, the same effect can be realized in a
rotational sense by generating a clockwise angular position
rotation or torque on the robotic joint through the
contraction of the agonist and relaxation of the antagonist
muscle. The key to the successful use of agonist–antagonist
control lies in the properties of the actuator that can
successfully contract and expand (relax).
Control systems can be used in numerous ways to
effect agonist–antagonist control. These applications are
widespread in robotics (Hajian, Sanchez, & Howe, 1997)
and bioengineering (Peterson & Chizeck, 1987; Zhou
et al., 1996) and have been applied in the nuclear power
industry (Caldwell, Medrano-Cerda, & Goodwin, 1995)
using PM technology.
An important actuator that can be used for agonist–
antagonist control is a pneumatic muscle (PM) (Fig. 2)

0967-0661/$ - see front matter r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.conengprac.2005.06.009
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
1000 D.W. Repperger et al. / Control Engineering Practice 14 (2006) 999–1009
which has many similarities to biological systems. Such
a device is analogous to animal skeletal muscle for the
following reasons: (1) forces are only generated via
contraction and (2) in a force or position control mode,
such an actuator is highly nonlinear. There are many
industrial uses of the PM system thus described. As
discussed, applications appear widely in robotics (Cald-
well, 1993; Caldwell et al., 1995; Noritsugu & Tanaka,
1997; Sira-Ramirez, Lopez, & Tondu, 1996), in nuclear
power plants for position control of uranium rods
(Caldwell & Favede, 1998), and for rehabilitation
(Inoue, 1988; Schulte, 1961). Other advantages of this
form of actuation include the fact that it fails gracefully
(termed ‘‘soft actuator’’) and is considered to be safer
than electric or hydraulic counterparts generating the
same force level. In addition, such devices can be
cheaply built and provide little contamination to the
environment in which they are designed to work.
Finally, in comparison to a hydraulic or electric
actuator, the PM has the highest ratios of power/weight
(1 wt/gm), power/volume (1 wt/cc), as well as power/
energy.
To explain the operation of such a device, Fig. 2
illustrates that as the air pressure rises inside the
bladder, enclosed within the outer sheath, the muscle
contracts in the longitudinal direction yet expands in the
radial direction. This produces a force externally on the
outside environment which can perform work. A typical
PM system may weight a few ounces and can lift
200–300 pounds which has significant advantages over
traditional hydraulic or electrical actuators. One can
Linear
Motion x
Antagonist muscle 0
B = Relaxation
B Mass A Environment
Agonist muscle
A = Contraction
(a)
Robot Link
i-1
Antagonist muscle θ = Rotational
B = Relaxation Displacement
B Sheath Material
A Force
Agonist muscle
A = Contraction
To Robot
(b) Link i
Fig. 1. Agonist–antagonist control: (a) linear motion, (b) rotational
motion.
easily see how nonlinearities arise in the use of the PM
system. Even if the pressure input is a linear time
function, the volume resulting from this inflow would
vary in a nonlinear manner with respect to the pressure
input. Also, from the physics of this process, the
contractile force generated on the external environment
is proportional to the net change of the cross-section
surface area affected via the inflation as follows:
DForce ¼ ðPressureÞ
DArea; (1)
where Pressure refers to gauge pressure (air pressure
inside the bladder above the atmosphere or external
environment) and DArea refers to the change in the
cross section area of the muscle as a consequence of the
inflation. Of course, the area change in Eq. (1) is
nonlinear with pressure input, since the system in Fig. 2
changes shape as it contracts. It is well documented in
the literature that the PM has nonlinear models of
position change with pressure (Chou & Hannaford,
1996;Repperger, Johnson, & Phillips, 1998). This is
biologically similar or ‘‘mimics’’ skeletal muscle (Hill,
1938; Phillips & Petrofsky, 1983; Rome, 1997; Stein &
Gordon, 1986; Winters, 1990). Little work, however, is
reported in the literature using PM systems in a force
control sense. Fig. 3 illustrates the force control
regulation problem considered here, i.e. the framework
in which it is desired herein to investigate the PM
system.
Force control methods are of considerable interest in
a number of industrial applications including cutting
processes (Carrillo & Rotella, 1997), Magnetic levitation
systems (Yi et al., 1996), in milling processes (Charbon-
Net Force on
Air Pressure Inlet
Internal
Air Bladder Mass
Protective Outer
Fig. 2. Operation of a pneumatic muscle system.
Force Input
Command Error Force
Pneumatic Output
Controller Muscle
-
System
Fig. 3. Force control system for a pneumatic muscle.
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D.W. Repperger et al. / Control Engineering Practice 14 (2006) 999–1009 1001

naud, Carrillo, & Ladeveze, 2001), robotics (Siciliano & α k *1 k *2

Villani, 2001), hydraulic actuators (Niksefat & Sepehri,
2000), in deburring applications (Liu, 1995), strip
castings (Bernhard, Enning, & Rake, 1994), and
pressure control (Alleyne & Liu, 2000). Traditional
controllers, as well as intelligent based systems, have
been of interest for these force control methods
(Mattiazzo, Mauro, Raparelli & Velardocchia, 1995;
Naghdy & Nguyen, 1998; Baptista, Sousa, & Sa’ da
Costa, 2001).
It should be noted that the goal here is to synthesize a
force generator, which displaces, yet emulates skeletal
muscle. The overall system (muscle and supporting
enclosure) must be considered within this analysis which
has to be stable and show adequate performance. Next,
to demonstrate the relationship of the PM actuator to
that of a biological system, a model is examined within
the framework of skeletal muscle (Phillips, Repperger,
Neidhard-Doll, & Reynolds, 2004).
2. A biomimicry framework to emulate skeletal muscle
The operation of animal skeletal muscle is very similar
to how the PM system performs. Forces are only
generated via contraction, but are a combination of the
action of additional factors. First, to discuss biological
muscle, four main variables play a prominent role in the
generation of a muscle force (Phillips, 2000). The
primary variables of interest are first defined. Then, a
state variable formulation will convert this problem into
a framework amenable to control theory analysis. The
latter model will then implement this theory into a PM
scenario to synthesize a force generator.
2.1. A biological analogy to build an isometric model
Initially, an isometric model will first be constructed.
The term ‘‘isometric’’ implies that the muscle generates
force (which may vary) with zero position movement.
For all the biological muscle analyses, the main
variables are: (1) V(t) ¼ Neural action potential, (2)
P(t) ¼ SR (sarcoplasmic reticulum) permeability to
calcium ions, (3) C(t) ¼ Free sarcoplasmic calcium ion
concentration, and (4) F(t) ¼ Isometric force twitch.
These variables are defined more precisely by Neid-
hard–Doll, Phillips, Repperger, and Reynolds, (2004),
and Fig. 4 displays these four variables, which are
described in more detail below.
To review the basics of the biological system in Fig. 4,
note:
(1) V(t) ¼ Neural action potential is an electrical
signal that activates the motor unit. Due to its short
duration (4 ms) when compared to the other physiolo-
gical events in the model, the peak action potential
voltage (V0) is simply modeled as an impulse variable (at
V(t) V(t) P(t) P(t) C(t) C(t)
F(t)
k1 k2 k3
V(t) - The stimulating neural action potential (impulse function) – units [mvolt]
µmeter
P(t) - The SR permeability – units [ ]
msec
C(t) - The free sarcoplasmic calcium ion concentration [Ca2+] – units [
mole]
F(t)- The isometric force twitch – units [mg]
Fig. 4. Open four-compartment system.
time t0) that results in the peak SR permeability (Ppeak)
Ppeak ¼ a V 0 ðunits of mm=msÞ; (2)
where a is a proportionality constant E0.000327 (mm/
(mV ms)). The value of a is determined from the ratio of
Ppeak to V0 (Phillips, 2000).
(2) P(t) ¼ The instantaneous SR permeability to the
calcium ions which can be approximated by the
following differential equation:
d=dt PðtÞ ¼ k1 PðtÞ; Ppeak ¼ an V 0 , (3)
where the exponential decay rate constant k1 is found by
fitting SR permeability data to a single exponential
function based upon ek1 t approaching zero after P(t)
has reached its peak.
(3) C(t) ¼ Free sarcoplasmic calcium ion concentra-
tion [Ca2+] (units of mmol) which is related to the SR
permeability equation (3) via
d=dt CðtÞ ¼ k2 CðtÞ þ kn1 PðtÞ; Cð0Þ  0, (4)
2+
where d/dt C(t) is the time rate of change of [Ca ]
across a unit volume of the SR membrane with units
(mmol/ms), kn1 is a phenomenological coefficient that
couples SR permeability to [Ca2+] with units (mmol/
mm), and P is defined in Eq. (3) with units (mm/ms). k2 is
the exponential decay rate constant (reciprocal time
constant associated with the re-sequestering of calcium
by the calcium ATP pump), found by fitting free
myoplasmic calcium data to a single exponential
function based upon ek2 t approaching zero after C(t)
has reached its peak, and C(t) is the instantaneous
concentration of free sarcoplismic calcium [Ca2+]
(mmol).
(4) F(t) ¼ The force twitch signal which results as a
consequence of the calcium interaction and can be
shown to be coupled to Eq. (4) via the following
relationship:
d=dtF ðtÞ ¼ k3 F ðtÞ þ k2 CðtÞ; F ð0Þ  0; (5)
where dF/dt is the time rate of change of force with
units (mg/ms), k2 is a phenomenological coefficient that
couples [Ca2+] to force with units mg=mmol=ms and k3
is the exponential decay rate constant (reciprocal
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1002 D.W. Repperger et al. / Control Engineering Practice 14 (2006) 999–1009

stress–relaxation, i.e. viscoelastic, time constant) found x2 ¼ CðtÞ; x2 ð0Þ ¼ 0 , (7b)

by fitting force data to a single exponential function
based upon ek3 t approaching zero after F(t) has reached
its peak. The units of k3 are 1/ms. F denotes the
instantaneous force with units mg. To summarize the
discussion so far, Table 1 displays the various ki
variables with their appropriate SI (system interna-
tional) units and values. Table 2 then summarizes the
relevant differential equations discussed.
It is noted in Fig. 4 that these first-order diffusion-
type processes assumed for the formation of force,
viewing it within the context of a calcium pump, are not
unlike similar studies in other industrial applications,
e.g. involving drug models (Mahfouf, Linkens, & Xue,
2002). Modeling work accomplished using the PM
actuator by Reynolds, Repperger, Phillips, and Bandry
(2003) also discusses some of these relevant issues.
2.2. A state variable formulation of the isometric system
The bio-inspired system previously described will now
be converted to a state variable description which can
then be generalized to the PM system. Setting x1 (the SR
permeability ¼ P(t)) as the input to the system that we
can control through modulation of the a term in Eq. (2),
and x3 (the developed isometric force twitch) as the
output, the preliminary state equations for the system
become
d=dt x1 ðtÞ ¼ k1 x1 ðtÞ, (6a)
d=dt x2 ðtÞ ¼ kn1 x1 ðtÞ  k2 x2 , (6b)
d=dt x3 ðtÞ ¼ kn2 x2 ðtÞ  k3 x3 , (6c)
x3 ¼ F ðtÞ; x3 ð0Þ ¼ 0. (7c)
Simplifications can now be made from Fig. 4 and Eqs.
(6a)–(6c) by selecting new state variables which are
defined as z1 ¼ C(t), and z2 ¼ F(t). Eqs. (6a)–(6c) now
simplify to the following state variable representation:
" # " #" # " #
z_1 k2 0 z1 kn1
¼ n þ PðtÞ, (8)
z_2 k2 k3 z2 0
where P(t) is now considered as the input variable time
function ðPðtÞ ¼ a V 0 ek1 t Þ. The output equation
(y(t) ¼ F(t), the force response generated) would be of
the form
" #
z1
yðtÞ ¼ ½0; 1 , (9)
z2
where the presumption is made that the measured
output variable y(t) would be the isometric force twitch.
Such a formulation (8–9) represents a completely
controllable, observable, and stable system. Its limita-
tion, however, is that it embodies an isometric model of
muscle dynamics, i.e. the position change must be zero.
It is obvious that PM systems and other force generators
have only practical applicability if they move and
produce some external work on the environment. The
isometric muscle system, however, is extremely well
studied and selected to be emulated in this investigation.
However, in this paper, the PM system will be allowed
to move (violate the implicit hypothesis of being
isometric, yet behave similarly to Eqs. (8) and (9)).

where, from normalization,

x1 ¼ PðtÞ; x1 ð0Þ ¼ 1 , (7a) 3. Some additional challenges of using the PM system

Table 1 There are special challenges involving the combined

Decay rate constants and phenomenological coefficients PM system when utilized within an industrial frame-
work. First, as previously mentioned, the PM, itself, is
ki variable Type of coefficient Units Value of coefficient
inherently nonlinear. Secondly, such a device must be
k1 Decay rate constant 1/ms 0.1578 attached to an object to perform useful work but must
k2 Decay rate constant 1/ms 0.0628 also be connected to the stable environment (cf. Figs.
k3 Decay rate constant 1/ms 0.0172 1a,b and 2). The frame and connectors may introduce
k*1 Phenomenological mmol/mm 0.29
problems due to resonance in their structure when
k*2 Phenomenological mg/(mmol/ms) 0.0572
interacting with the extremely powerful PM. Thus, the

Table 2
Summary of the key differential equations and couplings

Physical process Variable Variable name Differential equation relationship

Biophysics V(t) Action potential p(0) ¼ (0.000327) V0 ¼ Ppeak

Biochemistry P(t) Permeability d/dt P(t) ¼ (0.1578) P(t)
Biochemistry C(t) Free calcium d/dt C(t) ¼ (0.0628) C+(0.29) P
Biomechanics F(t) Force twitch d/dt F(t) ¼ (0.0172) F+(0.0572)C
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
D.W. Repperger et al. / Control Engineering Practice 14 (2006) 999–1009 1003

yt) = F(t)= Force Output of PM System versus time

534

Force output in Newtons

445

356

267

178
Series1
10
89
10 volt step input volts
0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Fig. 5. Overall structure for the PM system.
Time in seconds

Fig. 6. Open loop response of the PM system (with frame) to step

input y(t) ¼ F(t) ¼ Force output of the PM system versus time.
force application desired, the frame, and the actuator
may all work in a manner to compromise the overall
performance when the muscle moves dynamically. To
show the extent of these problems, a series of tests were jω Axis
conducted on the system displayed in Fig. 5. The
bladder was constructed from common rubber bicycle
tire tube and the outer sheath material was ordinary
coaxial (polyester) insulation, which makes the cost
quite minimal.
0
3.1. An open loop characterization of the device and
Real Axis
frame (system concept)

A step function of pressure was applied to the system 1/(.0172) = 1/(.0628) =

(with a load of about 392 N) in Fig. 5. Fig. 6 shows the
resulting force profile as a function of time. It is
observed that structure resonance occurred. The metal
frame was strengthened several times but responses
similar to Fig. 6 were seen, quite typically. The sampling
rate was at 2048 Hz and the natural frequency of the
frame/connectors was determined to be about 5 Hz.
Also, since the filling time constant of a PM is about 1 s,
the only way resonances of the form of Fig. 6 could
occur must be from the frame and the connectors. The
time responses in Fig. 6 cannot be avoided due to the
extremely high strength and power produced by the PM
system. Typically with structures, active control is
possible if actuators could be placed appropriately
within the frame (Goodall & Austin, 1994), but
vibration reduction always presents a challenging and
important problem with all control systems (Yu, Chai,
& Yuan, 1996).
Also, since the target goal of this effort is biomimicry,
an examination of Eq. (8) shows that for the skeletal
muscle case, the dominant eigenvalue occurs at 15.92 Hz
¼ 1/0.0628 (cf. Fig. 7). Thus, the untoward response
depicted in Fig. 6 (5 Hz) is much lower in frequency than
even the desired target response (15.92 Hz), producing
additional problems. Fig. 6 was a consequence of a step
response input. Certainly, this allowed the frame/
58.14 Hz = 15.92 Hz =
365.11 rad/sec. 100.01 rad/sec.
Fig. 7. Pole-zole diagram of skeletal muscle dynamics in Eqs. (8) and
(9).
connector dynamics to be excited because of the wide
spectral nature of the step input. In an attempt to
minimize the spectral content of the input signal
sufficiently to produce responses of use to generate a
force twitch, an input signal of the lowest possible
frequency content is suggested. The next section
describes the derivation of a desired force pulse to be
generated from the PM system.
3.2. Derivation of a force twitch signal of a low frequency
nature
The goal in this section is to synthesize an input signal
into an open loop PM system and frame which will
emulate the output signal F(t) from Eqs. (8) and (9) as it
occurs in biological muscle. From prior studies in
muscle dynamics, an approximation to a force twitch
is displayed in Fig. 8. This is a time domain representa-
tion of force (slow twitch; Rome, 1997). Appendix A
describes how the force unit variable y(t) ¼ F(t), the

1004 D.W. Repperger et al. / Control Engineering Practice 14 (2006) 999–1009
y(t) = F(t) R difference of exponentials (10,4)
45
40
35
30
PSI Desired
25
20
15
2 = 10, 1 = 4.0
10
5 Fig. 9. Matching the source impedance to the input impedance.
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
-5
time
t = time axis in seconds
Fig. 8. Simulation of force twitch.
solution of (9), can be characterized by the difference of
two exponentials, i.e.,
yðtÞ ¼ Aðeg1 t  eg2 t Þ,
where g2 4g1 40 and Eq. (10) satisfies the boundary
conditions y(0) ¼ 0 and y(N) ¼ 0. Eq. (10) is actually
the solution of the bioinspired model of Eqs. (8) and (9)
and becomes the basis for the force emulation of the PM
system, as demonstrated in this paper. It is important to
note that a time scale change must be instituted with the
PM. Thus, the biomimicry developed will produce a
shape similar to Fig. 8 in a temporal sense, but on an
expanded time scale. This is a consequence of the fact
that the inflation time constant for the PM is 1 s, which
is much too slow to exactly replicate the time scale of
skeletal muscle. Filling the dead volume of the PM is
always a limiting factor in its use. Thus, the goal is to
replicate a force pulse that emulates Fig. 8, but on a
slower time scale.
The next section describes the means of reducing the
frame excitation as described in Fig. 6.
3.3. Modifying the input to minimize wave reflections
To reduce the undesired response from Fig. 6, a
technique from the circuit theory, as illustrated in Fig. 9,
uses the concept of wave reflections. This approach is
employed commonly in the analysis of transmission
lines or other types of distributed systems. The input
wave Vinitial indicated in blue and moves to the right.
The reflected wave, Vreflected, is indicated in red and
moves to the left. The scattering parameter S is the ratio
of the magnitude of the reflected wave to the magnitude
of the input wave. Thus
jV reflected j
S¼ ; where 0pSp1
jV initial j
if the system is stable, which is desired. It can also be
shown (Appendix B) that S ¼ 0 and the reflection wave
ARTICLE IN PRESS
Zsource
R
Vinitial Zinput
Source impedance
Vinput looking Zinput
Inward.
Vreflected
1.4 1.6 1.8 2
is zero if the source impedance Zsource in Fig. 9 is
matched precisely to the characteristic impedance Zinput
looking into the circuit or system (Zsource ¼ Zinput).
To implement the concepts in Fig. 9, Zinput is assumed
to be first order and characterized by a transfer function
(in steady state):
(10) x1
Z input ¼ , (12)
1 þ s=x2
where s is the Laplace transform variable, x1 is a
forward gain and x2 represents the bandwidth term. By
varying the source impedance Zsource (via a digital
controller on the pressure) until it impedance matches
Zinput, the source impedance can be tuned to the input
impedance of the network under study. Hence, the goal
is to make Zsource ¼ Zinput ¼ the characteristic impe-
dance. Thus, for the proper choices of x1 and x2 , the
reflected wave can be made zero, S ¼ 0, and the
undesired dynamics induced via wave reflections would
be minimized. Fig. 10 illustrates this effect when
applying the method in Fig. (9) (x2 ¼ 0:8) to the system
in Fig. 5, using, in addition, a small amount of rate and
position feedback to reduce some of the very high
frequency response observed in the force response
output. This was accomplished by making Zsource
equivalent to Zinput in Eq. (12), but with a PD loop
around Zsource to keep its transfer function close to
Zinput in a frequency domain sense but still maintaining
the quality of the output force signal via a digital
controller.
Thus, the system now appears reasonably stabilized.
The force output in Fig. 10 now sufficiently emulates a
force pulse of the type in Fig. 8 above a base line value
(approximately 330 N). This is similar to problems that
occur in vibration isolation studies. To see the actual
force twitch signal (generated above the load value),
Fig. 11 illustrates this as a comparison to Fig. 8 above
the baseline in Fig. 10.
An overall strategy for control of such a PM system
(11) will now be synthesized employing knowledge from how
biological systems recruit forces using summations of
both spatial motor units as well as through temporal
summation of these motor units.
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
D.W. Repperger et al. / Control Engineering Practice 14 (2006) 999–1009
LC1
LC1
445
Force Output in Newtons
356
267
Step Voltage Input
178
89
0 0
0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0
TIME IN SECONDS
Fig. 10. Force pulse matching input impedance using wave analysis.
Fig. 11. Force twitch signal extracted from Fig. 10.
4. A strategy for force recruitment derived from
biological systems
In order to use PM systems for industrial applications
in either series or parallel, a review will be made on how
such events occur in nature. In biological systems, the
control strategy employed to attain a target skeletal
muscle force is based upon the superimposition of the
mechanical effects of individually stimulated skeletal
muscle fibers. This peripheral nervous system control
strategy for increasing muscle force amplitude until
target acquisition is a function of both the number of
new motor units recruited spatially, and the speed or
frequency at which these recruited motor units are
stimulated. A motor unit is the smallest functional
component of the neuromuscular system, and is defined
as an alpha motoneuron and the skeletal muscle fibers it
innervates. The number of muscle fibers innervated
varies, from less than a dozen for fine motor control
(e.g. extraocular muscles), to several hundred for gross
motor control and muscles responsible for posture.
A stimulation parameter $P can be defined to
represent the quantity of exciting electrical charge
1005
(delivered in current pulses) to a motor unit by the
peripheral motor nerve (Phillips, 2000). An increase in
the amplitude or width of the stimulation parameter (a
given current pulse) results in the recruitment of
additional neighboring motor units, or spatial summa-
tion. An increase in the frequency of current pulses
(in a current pulse train) results in enhanced force
output by the existing recruited motor units, or temporal
summation.
10
To model a population of motor units, a set of
physiological-based rules (or strategy) must be em-
volts
ployed to define recruitment during skeletal muscle
contraction. Strength–recruitment curves based upon
empirical data for human skeletal muscle have histori-
cally indicated that with respect to acquiring target force
development, the first 50% of motor units are recruited
spatially (Phillips, 2000). Spatial recruitment results in a
successive increase in the peak amplitude of the
generated muscle twitch, due to the combined effect of
the individual force twitches produced by multiple
(neighboring) motor units.
The remaining increase in force required to capture
the desired target is obtained by increasing the stimula-
tion frequency of the already (spatially) recruited motor
units. This temporal recruitment results in superimposi-
tion (or summation) of the mechanical effects, and is
characterized by an increase in the peak amplitude of
the generated muscle force (Rack & Westbury, 1969). If
the stimulation frequency is increased to approximately
60 Hz, the superimposed mechanical effects fuse com-
pletely, resulting in maximum force amplitude (in which
tension maximally plateaus) termed tetanus (Fung,
1993), as illustrated in Fig. 12. During tetanus, the
stimulation frequency is so rapid that the SR does not
have time to reclaim calcium ions from the myoplasm.
Consequently, the skeletal muscle endures a sustained
(and smooth) contraction, which is useful for perform-
ing work on the environment. The goal here is to have
the PM system perform a similar type of force
generation.
To achieve this strategy with the PM system, each
force twitch, yi, will be considered an individual element
which will be recruited either by temporal summation or
by spatial recruitment. The proper use of these control
units to synthesize a desired force response is not unlike
strategies developed in other industrial applications, e.g.
the fiber-yarn production (Sette, Boullart, & Van
Langenhove, 1998) where setpoint values and raw
materials are designed for optimal quality, for strategies
involving the rehabilitation of power plants based on
cost and performance issues (Soares, Goncalves,
Silva, & Lemos, 1997), and for strategies involving the
control of servo-pneumatic actuators (cylinders) with
acceleration feedback to improve stability and to
mitigate the effects of time delay in Wang, Pu, and
Moore (1999).
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1006 D.W. Repperger et al. / Control Engineering Practice 14 (2006) 999–1009

LC1 Tetanus 40psi, interval .5

140
LC1
120

100

80
Voltage step inputs
10
60

40
volts
20

0 0
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000

Fig. 14. Tetanus emulated with the PM system.

where ti ¼ 0, Dt, 2Dt, y (n1)Dt and there may be up

to n, yi signals in a desired time period. This is a time
domain summation. An alternative manner to achieve
tetanus would be via a spatial summation (at a specific
Fig. 12. Tetanus generation via temporal summation (Fung, 1993). time point) and in this case more motor units would
simultaneously fire. Assuming m motor units would fire,
this would be equivalent to:
Designed Spatial Summation to Tetanus:
Source Impedance
ξ1
X
m
Zsource = ȳ¯ ðtÞ ¼ yi ðtÞ ¼ m yi ðtÞ. (14)
s
1+ i¼1
ξ1
yi = A(e−1t −e−2t) Thus, by simply multiplying the yi signal by m, a
To Load
y(t) in
Load constant, would be equivalent to spatially summing up
equation (10) to m motor units. Fig. 14, which was demonstrated on
the PM system, can be generalized by a temporal
summation (more frequently adding a force twitch) or
Fig. 13. Strategy for temporal and spatial summation. by increasing the amplitude of an individual force twitch
(recruiting additional motor units). Fig. 14 can be
compared to Fig. 12 for similarity. The goal of Fig. 14 is
The tetanus generation can be emulated for the PM
to emulate the small oscillations shown in Fig. 12, where
system. To describe this action, Fig. 13 describes a
force twitches are synthesized by step voltage inputs into
summary of what has been determined up to this point.
the PM system and the oscillations in both figures
correspond to force twitch responses that are desired.
4.1. Summary of results up to this point

A force pulse yi(t) can be generated similar to Eqs. (8) 5. Discussion

and (9). This signal is then transmitted through an
impedance Zsource (via a digital controller) in Fig. 13 to
reduce any wave reflections. This new waveform
received at the load then produces a force twitch
presented in Fig. 11. To generate tetanus using the PM
system, it can be realized in two ways. First, at a fixed
location, in a time sense (temporal summation) via the
summation of yi signals over a fixed time period (n per
unit time) but delayed in time
Temporal Summation to Tetanus:
X
n response) terms of Eqs. (3)–(5), i.e.,
ȳi ðtÞ ¼ yi ðt  ti Þ,
i¼1
In the human skeletal system, P(t) occurs over less
than 10 m/s; C(t) occurs over approximately 30 m/s; and
F(t) occurs over 100–300 m/s, depending on fiber type
(fast or slow-twitch). Therefore, P(t) has the fastest
dynamics, whereas F(t) has the slowest, due to electro-
chemical and chemomechanical time delays (i.e. kn1 and
kn2 , respectively).
Fig. 15 portrays the three critical coefficients found
from this procedure using the homogenous (free
(13)
_ ¼ k1 PðtÞ,
PðtÞ (15)
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D.W. Repperger et al. / Control Engineering Practice 14 (2006) 999–1009
F (t) Force Twitch =
Slowest time constant
C (t)
P(t) =
SR Ca 2+ =
Permeability Intermediate time
constant
Fastest Time
Constant
Time Axis
Fig. 15. Homogenous solutions to Eqs. (15)–(17).
_ ¼ k C̄ðtÞ,
C̄ðtÞ
2
F̄_ ðtÞ ¼ k3 F̄ ðtÞ,
where the barred quantities refer to the free response
terms of Eqs. (3)–(5). The interesting point is in the rank
order of the coefficients (time constants) of the above
three variables, where k1 ¼ 0.1578, k2 ¼ 0.0628, and
k3 ¼ 0.0172 (all units 1/ms). It is no accident that the
rank order of these coefficients follows similar to the
compartmental model in Fig. 4. What this means, in a
physical sense, is that the time history of P(t) (tp ¼ 1/
(0.1578) in ms) is much faster (shorter time constant)
than the time history of C̄ðtÞ (tc ¼ 1/(0.0628)), which, in
turn, is much faster than the time history of F̄ ðtÞ
(tF ¼ 1/(0.0172)). This makes intuitive sense that the
dynamics of the permeability P(t) must be sufficiently
faster than the dynamics of the calcium ions to build up.
Also, the calcium ion build up is required to be much
slower than the permeability dynamics (to have some
useful effect) but it is required to be much faster than the
force twitch, in order for the force twitch to perform
useful work. Recall that the force twitch must include
both temporal and spatial summations, so these
dynamics must be sufficiently slower than the calcium
dynamics yet much, much slower than the permeability
dynamics. Thus, the design by nature has carefully
constructed the relative time constants of these key
variables to enable a force twitch to be created and
manipulated for the performance of useful work
accomplished on the external environment.
6. Implementation of the PM in a closed loop force
tracking task
To this point, the techniques described herein have
been based mainly on an open loop analysis of this
actuator and its analogy to biological (skeletal muscle).
More recently, implementation results have been de-
monstrated in Repperger, Phillips, Neidhard-Doll,
1007
Reynolds, and Berlin (2005) and we present a task
showing more advanced results. The goal is to perform
force tracking, with a position constraint covering the
material presented previously. In Fig. 16 shows the
classical work loop diagram used when biological
muscle completes a task (full cycle of an agonist–anta-
gonist task). The vertical axis is the force generated by
the actuator and the horizontal axis is the length of the
muscle. The area A1 in the enclosed curve is the net work
delivered by the actuator upon the environment. This
has similarities to a Carnot cycle in thermodynamics but
here the area is productive in producing work on the
environment which is a key output variable. This is a
force tracking task because force is generated and the
length of the muscle varies during the completion of the
(16) mission over one full cycle. Fig. 17 shows empirical data
of the actual PM performing this force tracking task.
(17) The performance of the system in Fig. (17) can be
considered in several ways (Repperger et al., 2005). One
key output variable is area A1 in Fig. 17, which shows
the net work delivered to the environment from this
system. At variance to the method in a Carnot cycle
from thermodynamics, here the goal is to maximize area
A1, showing the ability of the actuator to perform work
on the external environment. Table 3 shows this efficacy
for a variety of controllers demonstrating that the area
A1 is a key metric for evaluation of this type of
controller. Controller 1 is the temporal controller
(summation of force pulses in a time sense), controller
2 is the spatial controller (summation of force pulses
from diverse locations), and controller 3 is the biologi-
cally based as described in Eq. (9).
7. Summary and conclusions
Emulating biological signals involving animal skeletal
muscle, a pneumatic muscle actuator has been designed
Force
B
Direction of Direction of contraction
Relaxation
Area A1
A
L1
Muscle Length (normalized as a percent change) L2
Fig. 16. Work loop analysis of biological muscle.
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1008 D.W. Repperger et al. / Control Engineering Practice 14 (2006) 999–1009

" # " # " #

2-Biomimic - 40 PSI B Plot z1 k2 0 kn1
45 x̄ ¼ ; Ā ¼ ; B¼ ; C̄ ¼ ½0; 1:
Fmax psi z2 kn2 k3 0
40
2-Biomimic - 40 PSI - B Plot (A.3)
35
Work Loop
30 Since C(0) ¼ F(0) ¼ 0 in Eqs. (7b) and (7c) and from
Contraction
25 Laplace transforming (A.1) and (A.2) yields
Psi

Area A1
20
Relaxation
F̄¯ ðsÞ ¼ Y ðsÞ ¼ C̄ðsI  ĀÞ1 BP̄ðsÞ ¼ HðsÞP̄ðsÞ, (A.4)
15
where the bars indicate that Laplace transform quan-
10
Fmin tities are being utilized.
5 The transfer function matrix H(s) is scalar and can be
0 represented via
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Length F̄¯ ðsÞ kn1 kn2
HðsÞ ¼ ¼ . (A.5)
Fig. 17. PM in a work loop force tracking task. P̄ðsÞ ðs þ k2 Þðs þ k3 Þ
From Eq. (10), it is desired to reduce (A.5) to the time
domain representation
Table 3 yðtÞ ¼ F ðtÞ ¼ A½eg1 t  eg2 t . (A.6)
Performance of the PM system in a full cycle of a work loop task
To achieve this goal, H(s) is decomposed via a partial
Controller PSI for 10 v signal A1 in joules as work fraction expansion:
employed input produced externally
D1 D1
Controller 1 40 0.303
HðsÞ ¼  . (A.7)
s þ k2 s þ k3
Controller 1 70 0.589
Controller 2 40 0.319 This will occur if D1 k3  D1 k2 ¼ kn1 kn2 or choose the
Controller 2 70 0.655 following relationships to realize the form of (A.6):
Controller 3 40 0.303
Controller 3 70 0.543 kn1 kn2 1 1
A ¼ D1 ¼ ; with g1 ¼ and g2 ¼ .
k3  k 2 k2 k3
(A.8)
Note, k24k3 and A40, resulting in g24g1.

to work in a force control sense. The overall system had

to be stabilized, including the frame and connector
dynamics. Once a force twitch that showed a reasonable
semblance to a typical slow-twitch animal muscle
response could be produced, the tetanus recruitment
paradigms could also be replicated. This provides a
method for the pneumatic muscle system to be used in a
force control systems mode both in its generated force
output and in synthesizing its strategy to accumulate
force, much like is accomplished in animal skeletal
muscle.
Appendix A
It is desired to show the relationship between the state
variable representation in Eqs. (8)–(10), which repre-
sents a time domain representation of the force twitch
signal. Rewriting Eqs. (8) and (9) as
x̄_ ¼ Āx̄ þ BPðtÞ,
y ¼ C̄ x̄,
Appendix B
To show the scattering parameter S of Eq. (11) would
be zero if Zsource ¼ Zinput, the ratio S ¼ Vr/
Vi ¼ (ZinputZsource)/(Zinput+Zsource) now follows from
definitions commonly occurring in circuit analysis via
transmission lines. The total voltage across the load is
V ¼ Vi+Vr, The total current in the series circuit is
given by IT ¼ Ii+Ir. This gives rise to the ratios: Vi/
Ii ¼ Vr/Ir ¼ Zsource. Hence, V i ¼ ð12ÞðV þ Z source I T Þ
and V r ¼ ð12ÞðV  Z source I T Þ. This results in S ¼ Vr/
Vi ¼ (ZinputZsource)/(Zinput+Zsource) and when
Z input ¼ Zsource , then S ¼ 0. This means there is no
reflected wave.
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