J. Radojicic and D. Surdilovic and G. Schreck
Modular Hybrid Robots for Safe HumanRobot Interaction
1601 - 1607
2009
3
12
International Journal of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering
https://publications.waset.org/pdf/11517
https://publications.waset.org/vol/36
World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology
The paper considers a novel modular and intrinsically safe redundant robotic system with biologically inspired actuators (pneumatic artificial muscles and rubber bellows actuators). Similarly to the biological systems, the stiffness of the internal parallel modules, representing 2 DOF joints in the serial robotic chains, is controlled by coactivation of opposing redundant actuator groups in the nullspace of the module Jacobian, without influencing the actual robot position. The decoupled positionstiffness control allows the realization of variable joint stiffness according to different forcedisplacement relationships. The variable joint stiffness, as well as limited pneumatic musclebellows force ability, ensures internal system safety that is crucial for development of humanfriendly robots intended for humanrobot collaboration. The initial experiments with the system prototype demonstrate the capabilities of independently, simultaneously controlling both joint (Cartesian) motion and joint stiffness. The paper also presents the possible industrial applications of snakelike robots built using the new modules.
Open Science Index 36, 2009