A Lumped Model for Grooved Aerostatic Pad

Air pads are often embedded into robotic devices for manufacturing and measuring applications. Investigating the performance of these pads is essential to obtain robot characterized by very accurate motions and positioning. Due to their simplicity, mathematical lumped parameter models can be adopted to evaluate quickly both the static and dynamic performance of such bearings. This paper describes a lumped parameter model to study the behavior of a grooved rectangular air pads. The static and dynamic results of the model are validated by using a purpose-built test bench.