A compact series elastic element using a rubber compression mechanism.

This paper presents the concept of a new rubber compression mechanism for rotary compact series elastic elements, which can be used in robotic joints in human–machine interaction devices. A compact elastic element is realized using rubber materials with a higher specific energy and energy density than steel or fiberglass, which are commonly used in commercial springs. To overcome the nonlinearity and hysteresis of the proposed compression mechanism, a mathematical Bouc–Wen model developed through parameter identification is proposed. This paper describes the working principle of the new elastic element and presents the modeling method. Experiments on the Bouc–Wen model conducted to demonstrate the suggested mechanism are reported, and the results show that the proposed elastic element can be used for robotic joints in human–machine interaction devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]