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Recently micro soft actuators have been developed actively, because they have possibility to be applied to micro hands, catheters, and so on. Especially pneumatic rubber actuators have high potential because of simple structure and non-electrical drive leading high safety. In our previous research, the pneumatic rubber actuator that can bend into two directions by positive and negative pneumatic pressures...
Co-robots that can effectively move with and operate alongside humans in a variety of conditions could revolutionize the utility of robots for a wide range of applications. Unfortunately, most current robotic systems have difficulty operating in human environments that people easily traverse, much less interact with people. Wheeled robots have difficulty climbing stairs or going over rough terrain...
This paper shows a study on two chambers soft actuator development and its application to an artificial soft actuator fin. Simulations of two chambers actuator are conducted using finite element method software and the bending angles produced are computed. Eleven designs are proposed and compared which differ in separating wall thickness, actuator thickness, fiber location, fiber materials, and rubber...
Search and rescue robots are being used more frequently to access hazardous environments to assess situations and locate survivors. There are a wide range of existing mobile platforms for various situations and environments, but these robots are typically bulky, heavy or expensive, limiting their widespread and practical use in case of disaster mitigation. Also, like most robots, locomotive robots...
In this paper, we report the autonomous driving actuator like living organisms. Many researchers have developed the biomimetic actuators and applied many kinds of stimuli-responsive polymers and gels to the soft actuators. Generally, robots are composed of various parts and require the external device such as thermal energy or electricity. On the other hand, many living organisms can generate an autonomous...
Remote center of motion (RCM) mechanisms are widely used in surgical robots to mechanically constrain the position of a certain point in the operation space. Examples of well-known RCM mechanisms include parallelogram mechanisms, spherical linkages, circular guiding arcs, etc. In this paper, a reinforced circular-guided RCM mechanism is presented. In the mechanism, a closed-looped circular-guiding...
In this paper, the design of a new compliant two-axis PZT actuated gripper is proposed based on flexure mechanisms. Its uniqueness is that both of the two gripper jaws can achieve two degree-of-freedom (DOF) movement. A lever structure is designed to meet the requirement of larger displacement due to the stroke limitation of the actuator. The gripper parameters are optimized by using genetic algorithm...
Flexible driving is essential in enhancing security during human-robot interactions and improving the adaptability of robots to complex environments. Based on these principles, we developed a variable stiffness actuator with automatic rigidity/ compliance switching. The actuator contains two motors-one for position control and the other for adjusting the stiffness. The stiffness adjustment motor independently...
Two types of 3-CRU translational parallel manipulators (TPM) are compared and investigated in this paper. The two 3-CRU TPMs have identical kinematics, but some differences exist in terms of the chain arrangement, one is in fully symmetrical chain arrangement, called symmetrical 3-CRU TPM, the other one is in asymmetrical chain arrangement, called asymmetrical 3-CRU TPM. This paper focuses on discussing...
Legged locomotion is an open problem in robotics, particularly for non-level surfaces. With decreasing robot size, different issues for climbing mechanisms and their attachment and detachment appear due to the physics of scaling. This paper describes micro-scale phenomena for different adhesion methods that can be employed in microrobots. These adhesion methods are applied to a sub-2 gram legged robot,...
This paper presents a novel rehabilitation assistive device called a “parallel link type human ankle rehabilitation assistive device (PHARAD).” It can accurately measure foot motions in six degrees of freedom and reproduce the ankle joint motions. By reproducing the input motions of the ankle joint, PHARAD conducts passive exercises for ankle rehabilitation. To measure and reproduce complex foot motions,...
For practical use, a myoelectric prosthetic hand needs to (1) have a human-like structure, (2) be lightweight, (3) have multiple degrees of freedom (DoFs), and (4) have a high grip force. We have developed a myoelectric prosthetic hand with an interactive-tendon driven mechanism. This paper describes the control method by which the interactive-tendon driven mechanism produces fine and precise actions,...
This paper proposes an iterative motion learning method with stiffness adaptation for energy saving in multi-joint robots. The method iteratively updates both a desired motion and joint stiffness using time-series data of the actuator torque obtained in a control trial with the desired periodic motion. The iterative method is designed to realize the convergence of the desired motion to an energy-efficient...
Compliant-motion control implementation on a humanoid robot with electrohydraulic joints is presented. Characterization results are shown, leading to a dynamic model used in feedback. A Natural Admittance Controller is designed, and its performance is demonstrated in demanding manipulation tasks, including dual-arm palmar manipulation of an egg and dual-arm valve turning.
This paper presents the design and implementation of an intrinsically soft arm system for the COMpliant huMANoid COMAN robot. The two arms (left and right) use state-of-the-art technologies on actuator design that combine both active and passive compliance principles. Robustness of the arms is ensured by integrating intrinsic Series Elastic Actuation (SEA) into the joints to protect the arm at the...
Neurological time delay is one of the important elements threatening human postural stability. Previous studies mainly focused on the neural controller to stabilize a human size inverted pendulum model. What kind of postural control mechanism is necessary for compensating neurological time delay by controlling muscles still remains a question. This research proposed to investigate whether a stance...
In this paper, we propose and analyze a Regenerative Magnetorheological Actuator (RMRA) for gait assistance in knee joint. The actuator has motor and magnetorheological (MR) brake parts working in parallel, and can harvest energy through regenerative braking. This novel design provides multiple functions with good energy efficiency. The design of the RMRA is first introduced, and its multiple functions...
This paper focused on improving the movement accuracy of PMs on the end-effector. Lots of sensors will be used to joints as possible, Some joints with better error performance than original driving joints at each position in the work space will be identified by using error evaluation measures, and their movement information will be transfered to driving joints to realize movements of the end-effector.
In our previous research, we have developed a novel standing assistance system, which uses a remaining physical strength of an elderly person. For realizing it, the assistance system needs to estimate the load of a patient and in many cases, the previous researchers use a joint traction which can be derived by a human linkages model kinematically for evaluating it. However, human body motions are...
Nowadays the Robotic Ubiquitous Cognitive network (RUBICON) has raised great attentions in robotics area. In this paper we explore and first propose a timely identification method of RUBICON with erasure channels. Firstly, the complex cognitive network is simplified into a single close-loop communicating network for identification. Then inspired by the interactive cognitive method, we propose recursive...
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