A Centrifugal Force-Based Configuration-Independent High-Torque-Density Passive Brake for Human-Friendly Robots

Safe actuation is one of the most important requirements for human-robot collaboration. Although a variety of passive brakes have been developed in order to safely regulate joint velocities, their performances are significantly subjective to gravity direction and mounting position, and thus are not...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inIEEE/ASME transactions on mechatronics Vol. 21; no. 6; pp. 2827 - 2835
Main Authors Dongjun Shin, Tanaka, Akichika, Kim, Namho, Khatib, Oussama
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York IEEE 01.12.2016
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Subjects
Actuation
Actuators
Brakes
Centrifugal force
Configurations
Couplings
Degrees of freedom
Density
Design methodology
Design optimization
Gravity
Human-friendly robots
Passive brake
Robotics
Robots
Torque
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Summary:Safe actuation is one of the most important requirements for human-robot collaboration. Although a variety of passive brakes have been developed in order to safely regulate joint velocities, their performances are significantly subjective to gravity direction and mounting position, and thus are not suitable for multi-degrees of freedom (DoF) robotic applications. Addressing these issues, we developed a centrifugal force-based configuration-independent high-torque-density passive brake. The brake is rapidly and bidirectionally activated at the desired velocity limit in any orientation relative to the direction of gravity. A design optimization methodology is proposed for high-torque density and low-reflected inertia, which allows for inherent safe actuation in the event of a system failure. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed brake is an effective solution for limiting velocity in multi-DoF human-friendly robots.
ISSN:1083-4435
1941-014X
DOI:10.1109/TMECH.2016.2575441