Journal
IEEE-ASME TRANSACTIONS ON MECHATRONICS
Volume 26, Issue 6, Pages 3051-3063Publisher
IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC
DOI: 10.1109/TMECH.2021.3052037
Keywords
Springs; Snake robots; Robots; Actuators; Force; Wheels; Prototypes; Energy efficiency; parallel elastic actuator; periodic movement; plate spring; snake robot
Categories
Funding
- JSPS KAKENHI [19K14949]
- Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [19K14949] Funding Source: KAKEN
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The study proposes a design methodology for improving the movement efficiency of planar snake robots using a plate-springed parallel elastic actuator (PSPEA). By designing the appropriate plate spring stiffness, verifying through testing, and obtaining optimal stiffness combinations through simulation, it was demonstrated that the proposed PSPEA can improve energy efficiency by up to 50% in experiments.
The design methodology of a plate-springed parallel elastic actuator (PSPEA) for the efficient movement of planar snake robots is presented. The stiffness, which refers to the relationship between the resilience moment and the joint angle, of the plate spring was first designed using a rigid body spring model. The modeled stiffness was then verified via a simple test rig. Combinations of spring stiffnesses that minimize the energy consumption of each joint at different velocities were obtained using dynamic simulation. Experiments using a planar six-link PSPEA-based snake robot were performed via sensors installed in the servomotors to measure torque and speed, and a motion-tracking system was utilized to measure the moving distance. True efficiency was evaluated using the cost of transport criterion, which was later compared with the dynamic simulation results. Despite its compact design, it was observed that the proposed PSPEA improved the energy efficiency of the snake robot by a maximum of approximately 50%.
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