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Authors developed a novel type of cable reel named “Unicorn Reel (UR)” for mobile robots working in hostile environments that utilize a cable for communications and power supply. Authors introduced a pipe-elected reel configuration for the UR to receive the cable from all directions, and a new type of level winder consisting of passively swing lever to lead the cable from the pipe to the reel. Although...
This paper proposes the design and development of an integrated serial elastic actuator (SEA) which is used as the elbow joint in the soft humanoid arm. First, requirements of SEA are illustrated. And six different types of elastic elements (e.g. the discoid element, the cylindrical) are analyzed using the design of experiment (DOE) method. And then, a discoid elastic element with larger flexibility...
This article proposes a new design of a 3D unfolded/tightened mechanism based on the spine structure of golden tree snake, which can realize torsion and bending. Inspired by golden tree snake vertebrae space deformation characteristics, analyzing the anatomy characteristics of the golden tree snake spine bone and muscle distribution characteristics, The bionic mechanism and drive unit can drive the...
The article introduces an actinomorphic soft robot that possesses a flattened body with a number of arms radially symmetric distributing and extending from robot central disc. Hence, mimicking radially symmetric musculature animals like starfish. The robot arm system, consisted of arm and smart material alloy (SMA) springs is the support structure as well as the robot propulsion device. A novel approach...
In this paper, we describe the development of a leg with a rotational joint that mimics the elastic characteristics of the leg of a running human. The purpose of this development was to realize the dynamics of human running, the analysis of which has revealed that the motion of the leg can be modeled by a compression spring and that of the leg joint by a torsion spring. We, therefore, assumed that...
We present an upper-limb assistive device for the elderly at home. In previous researches, the passive systems were manually adjusted to support arm movement with holding different weights of objects, and the active systems equipped with multiple actuators and sensors were too complex and expensive to use in hospitals and rehabilitation clinics as well as homes. If the assist for the activities of...
Underactuated robotic hands require a certain mechanism substituted for actuators. The role of this ingenious mechanism is distributing a system input to several system outputs. In other words, one input from an actuator is distributed to every joints of a finger by the mechanism with the consideration for the task and environment. A typical example is mechanical linkages with different link lengths...
In development of industrial robot and field mobile robot, the handling robot of relatively heavy payload uses the weight balancing mechanism to reduce power burden of driving motor. To select a gas spring as the weight balancer, the relationship equations of stroke and reaction force are derived and the real selection examples are given. And also the characteristic experimental results are given.
Rehabilitation robots are an effective supplement to classical locomotion therapy, guaranteeing a high training intensity with a sufficient amount of iterations. Rehabilitation robots are developed with respect to the needs of the patients, ensuring safety and optimal training conditions. In this contribution, a control structure for a gait trainer is presented allowing unsupervised training. The...
As a rehabilitation support system is a digital device, it has an ability to automatically record and store data. In this study, we utilized this feature to develop an operation interface. Operation interfaces can be compared on the basis of the recorded data. In the case of the stick-type operation interface, the operator can freely control the device by recognizing the direction and magnitude of...
This paper designs a new underactuated robotic finger using a special transmission mechanism. The transmission mechanism consists of a set of gears and a spring to produce connected motions and adaptive curling when the finger moves in free space and when it contacts with the environment, respectively. The connected motion is realized by kinematic constraints of the joints instead of the static equilibrium...
In this paper, we present a novel design for constructing multi-section continuum robots with a special focus on thin (less than 1 cm diameter) and relatively longer length (more than 100 cm), along with its new kinematic modeling and performance evaluation. This spring-loaded, tendon-actuated cable-like continuum robot incorporates key features of a concentric tube style design with added local compression...
Whole arm manipulation (WAM) allows robotic manipulators to grasp or even manipulate bulky and heavy objects. The idea is that a robot basically wraps around a bulky object to grasp it. This furthermore allows to grasp relative heavy objects, since the center of gravity of the object is located more closely to the first joints of the robot. Whole arm manipulation significantly increases the manipulation...
High-performance actuators are required for numerous novel applications such as human-robot assistive devices. The torque-to-weight ratio and energy efficiency of current actuation technology is often too low, which limits the performance of novel robots. Therefore, we developed a Series-Parallel Elastic Actuator (SPEA) which enables variable recruitment of parallel springs and variable load cancellation...
We present a method for system identification of flexible objects by measuring forces and displacement during interaction with a manipulating arm. We model the object's structure and flexibility by a chain of rigid bodies connected by torsional springs. Unlike previous work, the proposed optimal control approach using variational integrators allows identification of closed loops, which include the...
Safety is one of the most important issues in rehabilitation robot suits. We have proposed the structure of a rehabilitation robot suit equipped with two mechanical safety devices. The robot suit assists a patient's knee joint and the safety devices consist of only passive mechanical components without actuators, controllers, or batteries. We call one device the “velocity-based safety device” and...
Safety constraints are a major aspect for human robots interaction. A new variable stiffness robot joint (VSR-joint) is proposed for operating safely. The proposed concept allows for the development of an actuation unit with a wide range of stiffness and a fast stiffness regulation response. The design of VSR-joint is compact and integrated highly and the operating is simply. The mechanics, the principle...
We propose and describe two novel force-feedback actuation systems to support accurate robot-mediated wrist motor protocols during fMRI: a co-located actuation approach and a remote actuation system based on a plastic cable-conduit transmission. To decouple the load from the non-linearities of the actuators/transmission and to enable force feedback, in both systems we include physical compliance and...
Among the many features of muscles, their softness, (the ability to deform to accommodate uncertainty in the environment), and their ability to continue functioning despite disturbances, even partial damage, are qualities one would desire to see in robotic actuators. These properties are intimately related to the manner in which muscles work since they arise from the progressive recruitment of many...
This paper presents a control approach to express muscle-tendon complex in a musculoskeletal humanoid robot. Kenshiro is a full body tendon driven humanoid robot and is designed from the data of average 14 year old Japanese boy. By winding wires by motors we can express the contraction of muscles, and in this paper we introduce novel actuation system realized by integrating “Tension controlled Muscle(TCM)”...
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