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Variable Impedance Actuators

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Encyclopedia of Robotics

Synonyms

Compliant actuators: Variable stiffness actuators (when no controlled damping), soft actuators

Definition

A Variable Impedance Actuator (VIA) is an actuator with dedicated elements that decouple the motor inertia form the link inertia in a compliant and damped manner. The compliance and/or damping can be varied actively in order to adapt the natural robot behavior according to the desired task.

Overview

Traditional actuators are designed to behave as ideal sources of force/torque (as for direct drive DC motors) or position (as for position controlled servomotors). Those behaviors have the advantage of (usually) simplifying the control problem of the system the actuators are attached to (in the case of rigid position actuators). These actuators perform well in many high-precision industrial applications.

Variable Impedance Actuators, in contrast to a stiff actuator, are actuators with a richer dynamic behavior. Their output shaft is attracted toward an equilibrium position in...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Brubotics, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium

    Bram Vanderborght

  2. German Aerospace Center (DLR), Wessling, Germany

    Sebastian Wolf

  3. Italian Institute of Technology, Genoa, Italy

    Giorgio Grioli

Authors
  1. Bram Vanderborght
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  2. Sebastian Wolf
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  3. Giorgio Grioli
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bram Vanderborght .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Marcelo H. Ang

  2. Department of Computer Science, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Oussama Khatib

  3. Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy

    Bruno Siciliano

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Mechatronic Components and Systems, Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Wessling, Germany

    Markus Grebenstein

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Vanderborght, B., Wolf, S., Grioli, G. (2020). Variable Impedance Actuators. In: Ang, M., Khatib, O., Siciliano, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Robotics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41610-1_117-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41610-1_117-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-41610-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-41610-1

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