A Novel Multi-Layer Beam Mechanism for Variable Stiffness Robotic Arms
- Publication Type:
- Conference Proceeding
- Citation:
- Australasian Conference on Robotics and Automation, ACRA, 2021, 2021-December
- Issue Date:
- 2021-01-01
Open Access
Copyright Clearance Process
- Recently Added
- In Progress
- Open Access
This item is open access.
A stiff robot arm could cause significant injuries to human beings in the case of a collision. Introducing mechanical compliance into robots mitigates the effects of the impact and generates a safe interaction with human beings. An approach to modulating the stiffness of members in a robotic arm is the Multi-Layer Beam (MLB), which has a significant potential to achieve high stiffness variation and can be manufactured using traditional machining processes. In this paper, a new lock/unlock mechanism for the MLB has been proposed. It consists of a pneumatic actuator that drives a conical pin to interfere mechanically with the layers, and in turn changing the stiffness of the MLB. The conical pin mechanism was investigated by conducting experiments and Finite Element (FE) simulations. Both experiments and simulations show that this mechanism is able to increase the MLB stiffness by around 3.12 times. In addition, the effect of frames that surround the MLB was studied through FE simulations, showing that the increment of the number of frames rises the average of the stiffness range of the MLB and the stiffness ratio up to 11.5%.
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: