MACCEPA 2.0: compliant actuator used for energy efficient hopping robot Chobino1D

The MACCEPA (Mechanically Adjustable Compliance and Controllable Equilibrium Position Actuator) is an electric actuator of which the compliance and equilibrium position are fully independently controllable and both are set by two dedicated servomotor. In this paper an improvement of the actuator is proposed where the torque-angle curve and consequently the stiffness-angle curve can be modified by choosing an appropriate shape of a profile disk, which replaces the lever arm of the original design. The actuator has a large joint angle, torque and stiffness range and these properties can be made beneficial for safe human robot interaction and the construction of energy efficient walking, hopping and running robots. The benefit of the ability to store and release energy is shown by the 1DOF hopping robot Chobino1D. The achieved hopping height is much higher compared to a configuration in which the same motor is used without a series elastic element. The stiffness of the actuator increases with deflection, more closely resembling the properties shown by elastic tissue in humans.

[1]  Bram Vanderborght,et al.  Development of a compliance controller to reduce energy consumption for bipedal robots , 2008, Auton. Robots.

[2]  R. M. Alexander,et al.  Exploring Biomechanics: Animals in Motion , 1992 .

[3]  Fumiya Iida,et al.  Running and Walking with Compliant Legs , 2006 .

[4]  Kazuhito Yokoi,et al.  Running pattern generation for a humanoid robot , 2002, Proceedings 2002 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.02CH37292).

[5]  John Kenneth Salisbury,et al.  Playing it safe [human-friendly robots] , 2004, IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine.

[6]  H. Benjamin Brown,et al.  Experiments in Balance with a 3D One-Legged Hopping Machine , 1984 .

[7]  J. S. Sulzer,et al.  MARIONET: An exotendon-driven rotary series elastic actuator for exerting joint torque , 2005, 9th International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics, 2005. ICORR 2005..

[8]  Bram Vanderborght,et al.  MACCEPA: the mechanically adjustable compliance and controllable equilibrium position actuator for 'controlled passive walking' , 2006, Proceedings 2006 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2006. ICRA 2006..

[9]  Bram Vanderborght,et al.  Overview of the Lucy Project: Dynamic Stabilization of a Biped Powered by Pneumatic Artificial Muscles , 2008, Adv. Robotics.

[10]  Kazuhito Yokoi,et al.  A Running Controller of Humanoid Biped HRP-2LR , 2005, Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[11]  Stefano Stramigioli,et al.  Variable stiffness actuators: towards a new generation of robots , 2010 .

[12]  Moritz Diehl,et al.  Fast Motions in Biomechanics and Robotics , 2006 .

[13]  J. Taylor,et al.  Playing safe? , 1989, Nursing times.

[14]  Bram Vanderborght,et al.  Comparison of Mechanical Design and Energy Consumption of Adaptable, Passive-compliant Actuators , 2009, Int. J. Robotics Res..

[15]  Bram Vanderborght,et al.  A biomechatronical transtibial prosthesis powered by pleated pneumatic artificial muscles , 2008, Int. J. Model. Identif. Control..

[16]  Marc H. Raibert,et al.  Experiments in Balance With a 2D One-Legged Hopping Machine , 1984 .

[17]  Alin Albu-Schaffer,et al.  Soft robotics , 2008, IEEE Robotics Autom. Mag..

[18]  Koh Hosoda,et al.  Biped robot design powered by antagonistic pneumatic actuators for multi-modal locomotion , 2008, Robotics Auton. Syst..

[19]  R. Ham,et al.  Compliant actuator designs , 2009, IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine.

[20]  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.

[21]  Antonio Bicchi,et al.  Fast and "soft-arm" tactics [robot arm design] , 2004, IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine.

[22]  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.

[23]  Ioannis M. Rekleitis,et al.  The Avatar Project , 2008, IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine.

[24]  Thomas G. Sugar.  A novel selective compliant actuator , 2002 .

[25]  Stefano Stramigioli,et al.  Variable stiffness actuators: A port-based analysis and a comparison of energy efficiency , 2010, 2010 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[26]  Marc H. Raibert,et al.  Control Of A Biped Somersault In 3D , 1992, Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[27]  Subramanian Ramamoorthy,et al.  Constrained geodesic trajectory generation on learnt skill manifolds , 2010, 2010 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[28]  Nikolaos G. Tsagarakis,et al.  A novel actuator with adjustable stiffness (AwAS) , 2010, 2010 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[29]  Alfred A. Rizzi,et al.  Series compliance for an efficient running gait , 2008, IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine.

[30]  Bram Vanderborght,et al.  MACCEPA, the mechanically adjustable compliance and controllable equilibrium position actuator: Design and implementation in a biped robot , 2007, Robotics Auton. Syst..