The aim of this article is to present a survey on applications of Pneumatic Artificial Muscles (PAMs). PAMs are highly non-linear pneumatic actuators where their elongation is proportional to the interval pressure. During the last decade, there has been a significant increase in the industrial and scientific utilization of PAMs due to their advantages such as high strength and small weight, while various types of PAMs with different technical characteristics have been appeared in the relative scientific literature. This article will summarize the key enabling applications in PAMs that are focusing in the following areas: a) Biorobotic, b) Medical, c) Industrial, and d) Aerospace applications.

In this paper, the positioning control problem of pneumatic muscle actuators (PMAs) is being considered. A two-degree-of-freedom nonlinear proportional-integral-derivative structure is being synthesized, providing ameliorated compensation of the PMAs' nonlinear hysteretic phenomena and advanced robustness through disturbance cancellation. Experimental studies are being utilized to prove the overall efficiency of the proposed control scheme with regard to set-point tracking performance for the position control of a single PMA, torsion angle control of a nonsymmetrical antagonistic PMA setup, and disturbance rejection in both single and antagonistic control scenarios.

In this paper, the modeling and control problem of a pneumatic artificial muscle (PAM) is being considered. The PAM is an actuator characterized by a decrease in the actuating length when pressurized. Its nonlinear nature and time-varying parameters cause difficulties in modeling their characteristics, as well as in designing controllers for high-performance positioning systems. A constrained linear and piecewise affine system model approximation is formulated, and a control scheme composed of the following is being synthesized: 1) a feedforward term regulating the control input at specific set points and 2) a constrained finite-time optimal controller handling any deviations from the system's equilibrium points. Extended experimental studies are utilized to prove the efficacy of the suggested controller.

The aim of this article is to provide a survey on the most popular modeling approaches for Pneumatic Muscle Actuators (PMAs). PMAs are highly non-linear pneumatic actuators where their elongation is proportional to the interval pressure. During the last decade, there has been an increase in the industrial and scientific utilization of PMAs, due to their advantages such as high strength and small weight, while various types of PMAs with different technical characteristics have been appeared in the literature. This article will: a) analyze the PMA's operation from a mathematical modeling perspective, b) present their merits and drawbacks of the most common PMAs, and c) establish the fundamental basis for developing industrial applications and conducting research in this field.