Simulated and real pneumatic plant intelligent controlling via a low budget interface board

Pneumatic positioning systems, as rapid force enforcement systems, have always been popular to engineers due to their advantages like, low cost and clear environmental conditions of operation. Apart from that, the still unsolved problem of highly position accuracy requires intelligent control design schemes to achieve performance improvements. In this research work, an attempt to control a pneumatic actuator in a real rig simultaneously with a simulation model, is proposed. A modern control method was chosen for the task, which was implemented in both processes, the simulated and the real one. The mathematical model of the system will be provided and the comparison results of operation are illustrated in the paper supporting the efficiency of the proposed controller. Additionally, an embedded electronics board was designed and constructed to fulfill successfully the interface needs. On the board, a microcontroller was mounted and all its necessary peripherals in order to host the control algorithm, communicate with the pneumatic plant and at the same time operate as a data acquisition system. All electronic components were picked up from next corner's electronics store thus minimizing the cost of the research but without questioning the reliability of the system.