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The Arched Flexure Vsa: A Compact Variable Stiffness Actuator With Large Stiffness Range, Joseph M. Schimmels, Daniel Garces

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

The high stiffness of conventional robots is beneficial in attaining highly accurate positioning in free space. High stiffness, however, limits a robot's ability to perform constrained manipulation. Because of the high stiffness, geometric conflict between the robot and task constraints during constrained manipulation can lead to excessive forces and task failure. Variable stiffness actuators can be used to adjust the stiffness of robot joints to allow high stiffness in unconstrained directions and low stiffness in constrained directions. Two important design criteria for variable stiffness actuation are a large range of stiffness and a compact size. A new design, the Arched …