Interactive force control of an elastically actuated bi-articular two-link manipulator

Abstract

In this paper, elastically actuated bi-articular manipulator is developed using a novel compact planetary geared elastic actuator. The newly developed SEA, which is compact and has little backlash, can achieve high force control performance. The configuration of the developed manipulator is designed based on the bi-articular muscle coordination, which can simplify the kinematics of the manipulator. The SEA and bi-articular actuator configuration of the developed manipulator can achieve high performance force control in the workspace, and thus can be utilized for various applications related to the service robot. The mechanism and control algorithm of the novel SEA, and the novel kinematics and dynamics of the developed manipulator are introduced in this paper. Impedance controller is designed based on the kinematics and dynamics of the manipulator and its performance is verified through experiments. © 2017 IEEE.