A variable physical damping actuator (VPDA) for compliant robotic joints

This paper introduces the development of a semi-active friction based variable physical damping actuator (VPDA) unit. The realization of this unit aims to facilitate the control of compliant robotic joints by providing physical variable damping on demand assisting on the regulation of the oscillations induced by the introduction of compliance. The mechatronics details and the dynamic model of the damper are introduced. The proposed variable damper mechanism is evaluated on a simple 1-DOF compliant joint linked to the ground through a torsion spring. This flexible connection emulates a compliant joint, generating oscillations when the link is perturbed. Preliminary results are presented to show that the unit and the proposed control scheme are capable of replicating simulated relative damping values with good fidelity.

[1]  Matthew M. Williamson,et al.  Series elastic actuators , 1995, Proceedings 1995 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. Human Robot Interaction and Cooperative Robots.

[2]  T. Takenaka,et al.  The development of Honda humanoid robot , 1998, Proceedings. 1998 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.98CH36146).

[3]  K A Edge,et al.  Modelling of an electrohydraulically-activated friction damper in a vehicle application , 2001 .

[4]  Christopher Niezrecki,et al.  A new semi-active piezoelectric-based friction damper , 2003, SPIE Smart Structures and Materials + Nondestructive Evaluation and Health Monitoring.

[5]  Chee-Meng Chew,et al.  Series damper actuator: a novel force/torque control actuator , 2004, 4th IEEE/RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots, 2004..

[6]  Michael R. Zinn,et al.  A New Actuation Approach for Human Friendly Robot Design , 2004, Int. J. Robotics Res..

[7]  C. Niezrecki,et al.  Two semi-active approaches for vibration isolation: piezoelectric friction damper and magnetorheological damper , 2004, Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics, 2004. ICM '04..

[8]  Antonio Bicchi,et al.  Design and Control of a Variable Stiffness Actuator for Safe and Fast Physical Human/Robot Interaction , 2005, Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[9]  K A Edge,et al.  Damp-by-wire : Magnetorheological vs. friction dampers , 2005 .

[10]  Aaron Edsinger,et al.  Robot manipulation in human environments , 2007 .

[11]  G. Hirzinger,et al.  A new variable stiffness design: Matching requirements of the next robot generation , 2008, 2008 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.