%0 Conference Paper %B Proc. 10th Intl. Workshop Advanced Motion Control %D 2008 %T Physical Human-Robot Interaction: Dependability, Safety, and Performance %A A. Bicchi %A M. Bavaro %A G. Boccadamo %A D. De Carli %A R. Filippini %A G. Grioli %A M. Piccigallo %A A. Rosi %A R. Schiavi %A S. Sen %A G. Tonietti %K Embedded Control %K Physical Human-Robot Interaction (pHRI) %K Robotics %X

In this paper we discuss the problem of achieving good performance in accuracy and promptness by a robot manipulator under the condition that safety is guaranteed throughout task execution. Intuitively, while a rigid and powerful structure of the arm would favor its performance, lightweight compliant structures are more suitable for safe operation. The quantitative analysis of the resulting design trade-off between safety and performance has a strong impact on how robot mechanisms and controllers should be designed for human-interactive applications. We discuss few different possible concepts for safely actuating joints, and focus on aspects related to the implementation of the mechanics and control of this new class of robots.

%B Proc. 10th Intl. Workshop Advanced Motion Control %P 9-14 %G eng %0 Book Section %B Proceedings of the International Symposium on Robotics Research %D 2003 %T Variable Stiffness Actuators for Fast and Safe Motion Control %A A. Bicchi %A G. Tonietti %A M. Bavaro %A M. Piccigallo %E B. Siciliano %E O. Khatib %E Groen, F. %K Robotics %X

In this paper we propose Variable Stiffness actuation as a viable mechanical/control co-design approach for guaranteeing control performance for robot arms that are inherently safe to humans in their environment. A new actuator under development in our Lab is then proposed, which incorporate the possibility to vary transmission stiffness during motion execution, thus allowing substantial motion speed-up while maintaining low injury risk levels.

%B Proceedings of the International Symposium on Robotics Research %S Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics (STAR) %I Springer Verlag %G eng