TY - CONF T1 - Physical Human-Robot Interaction: Dependability, Safety, and Performance T2 - Proc. 10th Intl. Workshop Advanced Motion Control Y1 - 2008 A1 - A. Bicchi A1 - M. Bavaro A1 - G. Boccadamo A1 - D. De Carli A1 - R. Filippini A1 - G. Grioli A1 - M. Piccigallo A1 - A. Rosi A1 - R. Schiavi A1 - S. Sen A1 - G. Tonietti KW - Embedded Control KW - Physical Human-Robot Interaction (pHRI) KW - Robotics AB -

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.

JF - Proc. 10th Intl. Workshop Advanced Motion Control ER - TY - CHAP T1 - Variable Stiffness Actuators for Fast and Safe Motion Control T2 - Proceedings of the International Symposium on Robotics Research Y1 - 2003 A1 - A. Bicchi A1 - G. Tonietti A1 - M. Bavaro A1 - M. Piccigallo ED - B. Siciliano ED - O. Khatib ED - Groen, F. KW - Robotics AB -

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.

JF - Proceedings of the International Symposium on Robotics Research T3 - Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics (STAR) PB - Springer Verlag ER -