Design and Control of Robot Arms and Actuators for Greater Applicability, Safety and Sustainability

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Today's robot arms are either too unsafe or too weak to be useful for many applications. Since sensors and software will never be 100% reliable, robot arms must be made intrinsically safe before they can work alongside or cooperatively with people in factories (rather than the current practice of isolating robot arms behind safety fences), and before they can help people in non-manufacturing applications, such as assisted living. A robot arm that is intrinsically safe will not cause injuries even when sensors or software fails. One way this can be accomplished by severely limiting the speed and force output of the arm. However, this will make the arm too unproductive and/or weak for many applications. A better approach is to mechanically design its components to prevent harmful impact forces from occurring if the arm collides with a person.