Course

Unit 1

Pneumatic Actuators and Hydraulic Linear Actuator types – Single acting, Double Acting, Diaphragm, tandem, telescopic cylinder and cylinders with cushions. Rotary Actuator types – gear, vane, screw, piston types. Sizing of Actuators for industrial applications, Valves, Electro-hydraulic and Electro-pneumatic control devices. Symbols and circuits. 

Unit 2

Introduction to Electrical actuators, Solenoids, Rotating electrical machines, operating principles, main terminology and industrial standards. DC, BLDC, Stepper, Servo motor, Synchronous, Induction: principle of operation, main characteristics and construction, Types, Starting, Speed Control and braking, Efficiency, Testing, Selection considerations – direction controllers.

Unit 3

Drives: Introduction, classification of electric drives, Dynamics of Electric drives: Types of loads, Multi quadrant operations, motor dynamics, steady state stability and transient stability. Electrical drives for DC, BLDC, VFD, stepper, synchronous, induction motors: Basic characteristics, Operating modes, Different control schemes. Gear boxes and harmonic drives. Case study/projects – automation and robotics applications.

Course Objectives

• Introduction of electrical and non-electrical actuators.
• Sizing of pneumatic and hydraulic actuators.
• The terminology, characteristics and construction of electrical actuators.
• The classification of electric drives and their performance characteristics.
• Selection of actuators and drives for robotics and automation applications

Course Outcomes

At the end of the course, the student will be able to

CO1: Understand the concepts of hydraulic, pneumatic and electrical actuators to industrial applications.

CO2: Determine the specifications of hydraulic, pneumatic actuators for a given application.

CO3: Evaluate the performance characteristics of electrical actuators.

CO4: Select suitable actuators and drives for robotics and automation applications.

CO5: Analyze the performance characteristics of drives for different actuators.

CO-PO Mapping 

Text Books

S.R. Deb; Sankha Deb. Robotics Technology and Flexible Automation, Second Edition McGraw-Hill Education: New York,2010.

Kothari D.P. and Nagrath I.J., “Electric Machines”, Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited, New Delhi, 2004.
Gopal K. Dubey, Fundamentals of Electrical Drives, Narosa Publishing House, 2016.
Nathan Ida, Sensors, Actuators, and Their Interfaces- A multidisciplinary introduction, 2nd Edition, IET Digital Library,2020.
Pillay. S.K, A First Course on Electric Drives, Wilely Eastern Limited, Bombay, 2012
Stephen J. Chapman, ‘Electric Machinery Fundamentals’4th edition, McGraw Hill Education Pvt. Ltd, 2010.
Jagadeesha T., “Hydraulics and Pneumatics”, 1st edition, I K International Publishing House, New Delhi, 2015.