The dynamic effect of mechanical losses of transmissions on the equation of motion of legged robots

Youngwoo Sim, Joao Ramos

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Industrial manipulators do not collapse under their own weight when powered off due to the friction in their joints. Although these mechanism are effective for stiff position control of pick-and-place, they are inappropriate for legged robots that must rapidly regulate compliant interactions with the environment. However, no metric exists to quantify the robot's performance degradation due to mechanical losses in the actuators and transmissions. This paper provides a fundamental formulation that uses the mechanical efficiency of transmissions to quantify the effect of power losses in the mechanical transmissions on the dynamics of a whole robotic system. We quantitatively demonstrate the intuitive fact that the apparent inertia of the robots increase in the presence of joint friction. We also show that robots that employ high gear ratio and low efficiency transmissions can statically sustain more substantial external loads. We expect that the framework presented here will provide the fundamental tools for designing the next generation of legged robots that can effectively interact with the world.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publication2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2021
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages1191-1197
Number of pages7
ISBN (Electronic)9781728190778
DOIs
StatePublished - 2021
Event2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2021 - Xi'an, China
Duration: May 30 2021Jun 5 2021

Publication series

NameProceedings - IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation
Volume2021-May
ISSN (Print)1050-4729

Conference

Conference2021 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2021
Country/TerritoryChina
CityXi'an
Period5/30/216/5/21

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Software
  • Control and Systems Engineering
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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