Abstract
A branch of robotics, variable impedance actuation, along with one of its subfields variable stiffness actuation (VSA) targets the realization of complaint robotic manipulators. In this paper, we present the modeling, identification, and control of a discrete variable stiffness actuator (DVSA), which will be developed for complaint manipulators in the future. The working principle of the actuator depends on the involvement of series and parallel springs. We firstly report the conceptual design of a stiffness varying mechanism, and later the details of the dynamic model, system identification, and control techniques are presented. The dynamic parameters of the system are identified by using the logarithmic decrement algorithm, while the control schemes are based on linear quadratic control (LQR) and computed torque control (CTC), respectively. The numerical simulations are performed for the evaluation of each method, and results showed the good potentialities for the system. Future work includes the implementation of the presented approach on the hardware.
Highlights
Safety is the most important element during human–robot interactions in smart manufacturing and domestic scenarios [1,2,3]
In order to control the actuator, we presented the model predictive control (MPC) technique
In order to verify the previously introduced parameters identification method, we built a Simulink scheme based on the dynamical equations of the binary controlled variable stiffness actuator (BcVSA) to identify the same parameters
Summary
Safety is the most important element during human–robot interactions in smart manufacturing and domestic scenarios [1,2,3]. Bio-inspired robotics is inspired by soft manipulation with improvement towards human–robot interaction [4,5,6]. Remarkable progress has been made towards complaint robots, and human–robot interaction (HRI) has become the most important feature in the robot design and development. Human–robot interaction (HRI) aims at developing hardware (actuation) and software (algorithms) to allow more natural and effective communication and interaction between humans and robots [2,8,9]. The complaint actuators are growing in the scientific community because of the performance limitations of traditional stiff actuation approaches in terms of safety, energy efficiency, and the ability to interact with the environment [10]
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