Complete design methodology of biomimetic safety device for cobots’ prismatic joints

Making robots collaborate safely with humans has created a new design paradigm involving the biomimetic mechanical behavior of robots’ joints. However, few authors have contributed to the problems of safety in pure linear motion, i.e. a prismatic joint, in contrast to rotary motion. The contribution...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Robotics and autonomous systems 2018-04, Vol.102, p.44-53
Main Authors: Ayoubi, Y., Laribi, M.A., Courrèges, F., Zeghloul, S., Arsicault, M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acoustics
Automatic
Biomechanics
Biomimetics
Chemical Sciences
Electric power
Electromagnetism
Engineering Sciences
Fluid mechanics
Material chemistry
Materials and structures in mechanics
Mathematical Physics
Mechanical design
Mechanics
Passive Compliance
Physics
Polymers
Prismatic Compliant Joint
Quantum Physics
Reactive fluid environment
Safety
Thermics
Vibrations
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Summary:Making robots collaborate safely with humans has created a new design paradigm involving the biomimetic mechanical behavior of robots’ joints. However, few authors have contributed to the problems of safety in pure linear motion, i.e. a prismatic joint, in contrast to rotary motion. The contribution of this work is to present a new design that is capable of achieving, passively, an implementation of nonlinear elastic behavior for prismatic joints—the so-called Prismatic Compliant Joint (PCJ). This new device is based on the association of a six-bar mechanism with a linear spring. Hence, this structure generates a nonlinear stiffness behavior under a specified external force. The elastic characteristics of the PCJ are derived from a generic biological muscle mechanical behavior model and then customized according to the force-safety criteria of physical Human/Robot Interaction (pHRI) into a Hunt–Crossley contact model. A further investigation is carried out, via simulation, to verify the shock absorption capacity of the PCJ with a dummy head obstacle. In order to fit the PCJ response curve to the established safety measures, an optimization based on a genetic algorithm method is employed to tune the PCJ’s intrinsic parameters subject to some chosen constraints. •Prismatic Compliant Joint (PCJ).•Safe physical human/robot interaction.•Biomimetic mechanical behavior of robots’ joints.•Force-safety criteria of physical Human/Robot Interaction.•Optimization based on a genetic algorithm method.
ISSN:0921-8890
1872-793X
DOI:10.1016/j.robot.2018.01.008