A new generation of robots, able to safely co-exist and co-operate with people and get close to the human manipulation and locomotion performance in applications such as assisted industrial manipulation, collaborative assembly, domestic work, entertainment, rehabilitation or medical applications.
The key innovation for developing the new robots is the development, exploitation and integration of Variable Impedance Actuator Systems (VIA), the device responsible for the movement of the robot. Through VIA, the robot motion will be determined not only by an external software program that will give instructions to the machine, but the capability of carrying out certain functions will be directly embodied in the physical form of the machine, in such a way that the system should be able to passively be safe, efficient, compliant.
The development of VIAs is the result of the study of the physical and biological principles governing human motor control and learning; the new technology is applied to robotic manipulation, bipedal locomotion and rehabilitation robotics.
The Research Center “E. Piaggio” of the University of Pisa has developed a whole new range of VIA muscles using both bio-inspired and more sophisticated antagonistic concepts to implement VIA muscles: in the picture, the actuator VSA-Cube implemented on a robot. The main characteristics of this module are the low cost, the simplicity of employment and the high level control.
Project: Saphari (Safe and Autonomous Physical Human-Aware Robot Interaction)
