Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Safe arm design with MR-based passive compliant joints and visco—elastic covering for service robot applications

  • Published:
Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In this paper a safe arm with passive compliant joints and visco—elastic covering is designed for human-friendly service robots. The passive compliant joint (PCJ) is composed of a magnetorheological (MR) damper and a rotary spring. In addition to a spring component, a damper is introduced for damping effect and works as a rotary viscous damper by controlling the electric current according to the angular velocity of spring displacement. When a manipulator interacts with human or environment, the joints and cover passively operate and attenuate the applied collision force. The force attenuation property is verified through collision experiments showing that the proposed passive arm is safe in view of some evaluation measures.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Abbreviations

Ac :

Contact area of a cover

A,Ao :

Cross sectional areas

α(t) :

Acceleration felt by a human at timet

αstope :

Slope defined between applied current and generated torque

B :

Viscous damping coefficient

Bli, Bio, B2i, B2o :

Flux densities acting on each sectional area

Bmax :

Maximum viscous damping coefficient

h :

Height of piled coil bundle

ds :

Geometric design parameter in stator part

dr :

Thickness of a disk

F :

Impact force

Fhuman :

Force acting on a human

Ftimit :

Acceptable pain tolerance limit

F li,F 10,F 2i,F 2o :

Shear forces acting on each sectional area

Gc :

Elastic modulus of a cover (Pas)

Gi :

Gravity term in arm dynamics for theith axis

I :

Current applied to coil

Jmax :

Maximum moment of inertia

K :

Torsional stiffness of spring

Kp,K r,Kd :

Proportional, integral, derivative control gains

k :

Spring constant of each small spring

Mr :

Effective mass of a robot arm

Mh :

Upper part mass of a human

N :

Turn number of coil

nk :

Number of small springs

Rs, Rmri, Rmro :

Reluctances of the stator part, left MRF, right MRF

yli, Y2i Y10, y20 :

Distances from center line in radial direction

SI :

Severity index

Tgravity :

Torque considering maximum gravitational effect of each joint

Xh :

Displacement of a human

XR :

Displacement of a robot

Zc :

Thickness of a cover (m)

ηc :

Viscous coefficient of a cover (Pa)

δ :

Gap filled by MR fluid

μ0, μrf, μrs :

Permeability of free space, the relative permeabilities of MR fluid and steel

ϕsat :

Saturated magnetic flux in a disk part

ϕ :

Magnetic flux

τ b :

Experimentally obtained torque of MR damper

τ b max:

Desired maximum torque of damper

τm :

Motor torque considering reduction ratio

τ t :

Theoretically calculated resultant torque of MR damper

θd :

Desired angle of joint

θd :

Modified desired angle considering deflection by gravity in steady state

θ l :

Angle between current link and next link

θm :

Angle of motor

θmax :

Maximum deflection angle of spring

θmax :

Maximum angular velocity of spring

θr :

Angle sensed by resolver

ζmax :

Desired damping ratio determined by taking accountof overshoot and interaction with human

B :

Viscous damping

c :

Contact

D :

Derivative

d :

Desired

gravity :

Gravity

human :

Human

I :

Integral

i :

Inner part

0 :

Outer part

P :

Proportional

limit :

Limit

max:

Maximum

mri :

Inner part of MRF

mro :

Outer part of MRF

rf :

Value of MR fluid relative to free space

rs :

Value of steel relative to free space

R :

Robot

r :

Rotor part

S:

Stator part

sat :

Saturated

K :

Spring

slope :

Slope

T :

Theoretically

0:

Free space

i :

The i-th axis

References

  • Albu-Shaffer, A. and Hirzinger, G., 2002, “Cartesian Impedance Control Techniques for Torque Controlled Light-Weight Robots,”Proc. of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 657-663.

  • Carlson, J. D., Catanzarite, D. M. and St. Clair, K. A., 1996, “Commercial Magneto-rheological Fluid Devices,”Proc. of Electro-Rheologicat, Magneto-Rheological Suspensions and Associated Technology, W. Bullough, Ed., World Scientific, Singapore, pp. 20–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ikuta, K. and Nokata, M., 1999, “General Evaluation Method of Safety for Human-care Robots,”Proc. of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 2065-2072.

  • Iwata, H., Hoshino, H., Morita, T. and Sugano, S., 1999, “A Physical Interference Adapting Hardware System Using MIA and Humanoid Surface Covers,”Proc. of IEEE/RSJ International Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems, pp. 1216-1221.

  • Jolly, M. R., Bendor, J. W. and Carlson, J. D., 1998, “Properties and Applications of Commercial Magnetorehological Fluids,”Proc. of SPIE 5th Annual Int. Symposium on Smart Stucures and Materials.

  • Jung, B. -B. and Park, Y., 1999, “Electronically Controlled Power Steering by Magneto-rheo-logical Fluid,”Proc. of Korea Automatic Control Conference, pp. 1173-1176.

  • Kim, J. -H. and Oh, J. -H., 2001, “Development of an Above Knee Prothesis Using MR Damper and Leg Simulator,”Proc. of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 3686-3691.

  • Kim, M., Yoon, S.-S., Kang, S., Kim, S. -J., Kim, Y. -H., Yim, H. -S., Lee, C. -D. and Yeo, I. -T., 2002, “Safe Arm Design for Service Robot,”In Proceedings of The Second IARPIEEE/RAS Joint Workshop on Technical Challenge for Dependable Robots in Human Environments, pp. 88–95, Toulouse, France.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lim, H. -O. and Tanie, K., 2000, “Human Safety Mechanisms of Human-friendly Robots: Passive Viscoelastic Trunk and Passively Movable Base,”International Journal of Robotics Research, Vol. 19, No. 4, pp. 307–335.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lord Corporation, 1999, “Magnetorheological Fluid MRF-132LD,”Product Bulletin.

  • Lord Materials Devision, 1999, “Magnetic Circuit Design,”Engineering Note, November.

  • Morita, T. and Sugano, S., 1995, “Development of One-D.O.F. Robot Arm Equipped with Mechanical Impedance Adjuster,”Proc. of the IEEE/ RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, pp. 407-412.

  • Morita, T., Suzuki, Y., Kawasaki, T. and Sugano, S., 1998, “Anticollision Safety Design and Control Methodology for Human-symbiotic Robot Manipulator,”Journal of the Robotics Society of Japan, Vol. 16, No.1, pp. 102–109.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oh, H. -U. and Onoda, J., 2002, “An Experimental Study of a Semiactive Magneto-reho-logical Fluid Variable Damper for Vibration Suppression of Truss Structures,”Smart Materials and Structures, Vol. 11, pp. 156–162.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Society of Automotive Engineers, 1999, “Human Tolerance to Impact Conditions as Related to Motor Vehicle Design-SAE J885 Jul86,”SAE Handbook (SAE Information Report), Vol.3, pp. 34.464–34.481.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walker, I.D., 1994, “Impact Configurations and Measures for Kinematicatly Redundant and Multiple Armed Robot Systems,”IEEE Trans. Roboics and Automation, Vol. 10, No. 5, pp. 670–683.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yamada, Y., Suita, K., Imai, K., Ikeda, H. and Sugimoto, N., 1997, “Human-robot Contact in the Safeguarding Space,”IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronks, Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 230–236.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yoon, S. -S., Kang, S., Kim, S. -J., Kim, Y. -H., Yim, H. -S. and Kim, M., 2002, “Design and Control of a Passive Compliant Joint for Human-friendly Service Robots,”International Conference on Control, Automation and Systems, CD-ROM.

  • Yoshida, K., Mavroidis, C. and Dubowsky, S., 1995, “Experimental Research on Impact Dynamics of Spaceborne Manipulator Systems,”Preprints of the Fourth Int. Symp. On Experimental Robotics, ISER 95, Stanford, California, pp. 271-277.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Intelligent Systems Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, 1-1-1 Umezono, 305-8568, Tsukuba-shi Ibaraki, Japan

    Seong-Sik Yoon

  2. Intelligent Robotics Research Center and Tribology Research Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Hawolgok-dong 39-1, 136-791, Sungbuk-ku, Seoul, Korea

    Sungchul Kang, Seung-kook Yun & Seung-Jong Kim

  3. Intelligent Mechanical System Research Department, Electro-Mechanical Research Institute Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd., 449-716, Mabuk-ri, Kuseong-myun, Yongin-shi, Kyunggi-do, Korea

    Young-Hwan Kim

  4. Intelligent Robotics Research Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Hawolgok-dong 39-1, 136-791, Sungbuk-ku, Seoul, Korea

    Munsang Kim

Authors
  1. Seong-Sik Yoon
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sungchul Kang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Seung-kook Yun
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Seung-Jong Kim
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Young-Hwan Kim
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Munsang Kim
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sungchul Kang.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Yoon, SS., Kang, S., Yun, Sk. et al. Safe arm design with MR-based passive compliant joints and visco—elastic covering for service robot applications. J Mech Sci Technol 19, 1835–1845 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02984262

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02984262

Key Words

Search

Navigation