Comparison of Mechanical Design and Energy Consumption of Adaptable, Passive-compliant Actuators

Vanderborght, Bram; Ham, Ronald Van; Lefeber, Dirk; Sugar, Thomas G.; Hollander, Kevin W.

doi:10.1177/0278364908095333

Cited by 130 publications

(85 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…The VPC element designs mostly utilize torsional springs, series elasticity or structurally controlled variable stiffness. It is evident that the variable passive-compliance benefits were recognized by many researchers who incorporated various VPC designs into robotic platforms [20].…”

Section: Variable Passive Compliance In Roboticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

New Variable Passive-Compliant Element Design for Quadruped Adaptation to Stiffness-Varying Terrain

Koco

Mutka

Kovačić

2016

International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems

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This paper presents the design of a novel variable passivecompliant (VPC) element utilized as a lower-leg implant of a fully electrically driven quadruped robot. It is designed as a slider-piston mechanism which ensures that the force produced during a foot-ground contact is directly perpendicular to the contact surface of an actuated revolute spring. In this way, by altering the stiffness of quadruped legs in a closed-loop manner, the VPC element enables the quadruped robot to adapt to varying terrain characteristics, ensuring a constant hopping frequency over a wide range of terrain-stiffness variations. The designed VPC element and its beneficial characteristics are described in detail. Mathematical relations are formulated that help to describe the influence of the VPC element during vertical hopping of a quadruped robot. The properties of the quadruped research platform with integrated VPC element were verified in simulation and through experiments.

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Section: Variable Passive Compliance In Roboticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

New Variable Passive-Compliant Element Design for Quadruped Adaptation to Stiffness-Varying Terrain

Koco

Mutka

Kovačić

2016

International Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems

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“…The advantages of humanlike joint structures have been identified in a number of investigations [41,57,58], but definite answers to the control problem are yet to be found. Very few results have been presented on attempts at control of the antagonistically coupled compliant drives [28,37].…”

Section: Puller-follower Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward Anthropomimetic Robotics: Development, Simulation, and Control of a Musculoskeletal Torso

et al. 2013

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A version of this paper with color figures is available online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/ artl_a_00088. Subscription required.Abstract Anthropomimetic robotics differs from conventional approaches by capitalizing on the replication of the inner structures of the human body, such as muscles, tendons, bones, and joints. Here we present our results of more than three years of research in constructing, simulating, and, most importantly, controlling anthropomimetic robots. We manufactured four physical torsos, each more complex than its predecessor, and developed the tools required to simulate their behavior. Furthermore, six different control approaches, inspired by classical control theory, machine learning, and neuroscience, were developed and evaluated via these simulations or in small-scale setups. While the obtained results are encouraging, we are aware that we have barely exploited the potential of the anthropomimetic design so far. But, with the tools developed, we are confident that this novel approach will contribute to our understanding of morphological computation and human motor control in the future.

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“…Our design is based on the SEA approach in which the driven joint is connected via spring(s) to a stiff actuator (e.g., a servo-motor). A variety of SEA designs have been proposed in the past (for a recent review see [16]). Antagonistic SEA have one motor per opposing spring and the stiffness is controlled through a combination of both motor commands which means that the relationship between motor commands and stiffness must be resolved by the controller.…”

Section: A Novel Antagonistic Actuator Design For Impedance Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, the joint torque motors, for example, of a robotic arm are replaced by opposing actuators, typically using mechanical springs [10]. Such series elastic actuators (SEA) have found increasing attention over the last decades [16] as they provide certain beneficial properties over classic joint torque actuated systems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploiting sensorimotor stochasticity for learning control of variable impedance actuators

Mitrovic¹,

Klanke²,

Howard

et al. 2010

2010 10th IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots

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Abstract-Novel anthropomorphic robotic systems increasingly employ variable impedance actuation in order to achieve robustness to uncertainty, superior agility and efficiency that are hallmarks of biological systems. Controlling and modulating impedance profiles such that it is optimally tuned to the controlled plant is crucial to realise these benefits. In this work, we propose a methodology to generate optimal control commands for variable impedance actuators under a prescribed tradeoff of task accuracy and energy cost. In contrast to classical optimal control methods that typically require an accurate analytical plant dynamics model, we employ a supervised learning paradigm to acquire both the process dynamics as well as the stochastic properties. This enables us to prescribe an optimal impedance and command profile (i) tuned to the hardto-model stochastic characteristics of a plant and (ii) adapt to the systematic changes such as a change in load.

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Comparison of Mechanical Design and Energy Consumption of Adaptable, Passive-compliant Actuators

Cited by 130 publications

References 25 publications

New Variable Passive-Compliant Element Design for Quadruped Adaptation to Stiffness-Varying Terrain

New Variable Passive-Compliant Element Design for Quadruped Adaptation to Stiffness-Varying Terrain

Toward Anthropomimetic Robotics: Development, Simulation, and Control of a Musculoskeletal Torso

Exploiting sensorimotor stochasticity for learning control of variable impedance actuators

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