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Soft Robotics with Variable Stiffness Actuators: Tough Robots for Soft Human Robot Interaction

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Soft Robotics

Abstract

Robots that are not only robust, dynamic, and gentle in the human robot interaction, but are also able to perform precise and repeatable movements, need accurate dynamics modeling and a high-performance closed-loop control. As a technological basis we propose robots with intrinsically compliant joints, a stiff link structure, and a soft shell. The flexible joints are driven by Variable Stiffness Actuators (VSA) with a mechanical spring coupling between the motor and the actuator output and the ability to change the mechanical stiffness of the spring coupling. Several model based and model free control approaches have been developed for this technology, e.g. Cartesian stiffness control, optimal control, reactions, reflexes, and cyclic motion control.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. German Aerospace Center (DLR), Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany

    Sebastian Wolf, Thomas Bahls, Maxime Chalon, Werner Friedl, Markus Grebenstein, Hannes Höppner, Markus Kühne, Dominic Lakatos, Nico Mansfeld, Mehmet Can Özparpucu, Florian Petit, Jens Reinecke, Roman Weitschat & Alin Albu-Schäffer

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  1. Sebastian Wolf
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  2. Thomas Bahls
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  3. Maxime Chalon
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  4. Werner Friedl
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  5. Markus Grebenstein
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  6. Hannes Höppner
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  7. Markus Kühne
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  8. Dominic Lakatos
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  9. Nico Mansfeld
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  10. Mehmet Can Özparpucu
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  11. Florian Petit
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  12. Jens Reinecke
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  13. Roman Weitschat
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  14. Alin Albu-Schäffer
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Fraunhofer IPA, Stuttgart, Germany

    Alexander Verl

  2. DLR Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics, Wessling, Germany

    Alin Albu-Schäffer

  3. TU Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Oliver Brock

  4. Leibniz University of Hannover, Garbsen, Germany

    Annika Raatz

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Wolf, S. et al. (2015). Soft Robotics with Variable Stiffness Actuators: Tough Robots for Soft Human Robot Interaction. In: Verl, A., Albu-Schäffer, A., Brock, O., Raatz, A. (eds) Soft Robotics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-44506-8_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-44506-8_20

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