Backdrivability of Robots and Actuators

Evaporative Cooling of Actuators for Humanoid Robots

Autonomous humanoid robots need high torque actuators to be able to walk and run. One problem in this context is the heat generated. In this paper we propose to use water evaporation to improve cooling of the motors. Simulations based on thermodynamic calculations as well as measurements on real actuators show that, under the assumption of the load of a soccer game, cooling can be considerably ...

Series Elastic Actuators for legged robots

Series Elastic Actuators provide many benefits in force control of robots in unconstrained environments. These benefits include high force fidelity, extremely low impedance, low friction, and good force control bandwidth. Series Elastic Actuators employ a novel mechanical design architecture which goes against the common machine design principal of “stiffer is better”. A compliant element is pl...

Pneumatic Actuators for Climbing, Walking and Serpentine Robots

This chapter presents construction, control, advantages and disadvantages of various pneumatic actuators we have been using in several projects of climbing, walking and serpentine robots during last 13 years. We start with qualitative and quantitative analysis of different actuators. This part is mostly based on the literature review but augmented with our own experience related to these partic...

Shape Memory Alloy actuators in robots and composites

Soft Actuators and Robots that Are Resistant to Mechanical Damage

Robots based on rigid structural elements—metallic skeletons, electrical motors, conventional mechanical actuators, and mechanical joints—can be superb at performing tasks that require high precision, rapid movement, or application of high levels of force or power. These “hard” robots are, however, often heavy, costly, and diffi cult (and expensive) to control. [ 1–3 ] Hard robots designed to b...