Structure Design and Performance Research of Multi-configuration Bionic Elastic Actuator

doi:10.3901/JME.2022.13.071

Abstract

Abstract: Inspired by biological muscles and tendons, one multi-configuration bionic elastic actuator is proposed and designed based on the idea of metamorphic mechanism, in which the driving component and the elastic component are coupled efficiently by the metamorphic planetary differential gear mechanism. According to the differentiated power requirements in different motion phases of robot joints, the configuration switch of the elastic actuator is controlled to change the actuation modes, achieve output power modulation and energy adjustment, thereby improving the motion performance and energy efficiency of robot systems. On this basis, a single-legged hopping robot based on multi-configuration bionic elastic actuator is designed, and the jumping performances under different actuation modes are verified. The experimental results show that the multi-configuration bionic elastic actuated joint can effectively improve the instantaneous output power, and increase the jump height of the one-legged hopping robot by 6.8%, compared with the traditional geared reduction actuator. During the landing process of the one-legged hopping robot, the elastic component compresses and absorbs the kinetic energy, reduces impact, and improves the energy utilization rate. It proves the feasibility of the multi-configuration bionic elastic actuator in terms of input energy coupling and dynamic output power modulation.

Key words: elastic actuator, multi-configuration elastic actuator, metamorphic mechanism, single-legged hopping robot

CLC Number:

TG156

WEI Dunwen, GAO Tao, ZHANG Xiangyu, GE Wenjie, PENG Bei. Structure Design and Performance Research of Multi-configuration Bionic Elastic Actuator[J]. Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 2022, 58(13): 71-80.

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