1. Variable Impedance Actuators: Moving the Robots of Tomorrow
- Author
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Bram Vanderborght, Alin Albu-Schäffer, Antonio Bicchi, Etienne Burdet, Darwin Caldwell, Raffaella Carloni, Manuel Catalano, Gowrishankar Ganesh, Manolo Garabini, Giorgio Grioli, Sami Haddadin, Amir Jafari, Matteo Laffranchi, Dirk Lefeber, Florian Petit, Stefano Stramigioli, Markus Grebenstein, Nikolas Tsagarakis, Michael Van Damme, Ronald Van Ham, Visser, Ludo V., Sebastian Wolf, Robotics & Multibody Mechanics Research Group, and Industrial Sciences and Technology
- Subjects
Institut für Robotik und Mechatronik (bis 2012) ,Muscles ,Humans ,Impedance ,robot ,Robots ,Actuators ,variable impedance actuators ,Dynamics ,Pneumatic systems - Abstract
Most of today's robots have rigid structures and actuators requiring complex software control algorithms and sophisticated sensor systems in order to behave in a compliant and safe way adapted to contact with unknown environments and humans. By studying and constructing variable impedance actuators and their control, we contribute to the development of actuation units which can match the intrinsic safety, motion performance and energy efficiency of biological systems and in particular the human. As such, this may lead to a new generation of robots that can co-exist and co-operate with people and get closer to the human manipulation and locomotion performance than is possible with current robots.