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. In the long-term, this research program will help to enable the creation of intrinsically safe robot arms that will help many Canadians to have better lives. For example, they will free workers from dangerous and dull jobs, allowing them to pursue more interesting and fulfilling tasks, or help them to finish their tasks more efficiently. At home, mobile robots equipped with safe robot arms will assist the elderly or disabled. In the next five years we will be working on: methods for designing safe robot arms that are powered by either pneumatic or hybrid pneumatic-electric actuators; building a prototype safe robot arm; and creating several different software programs for controlling safe robot arms to perform tasks such as grasping and dropping off household or industrial objects, while simultaneously avoiding bumping into nearby people. The software will also reduce the energy usage of these robots arms, making them more sustainable. Two Ph.D. students, two Master's students and five undergraduate students will be trained during the next five years. In addition to research skills, all of the graduate and undergraduate students will get hands-on experience with advanced robotics and automation hardware and software that will greatly benefit them in their future careers in Canadian industry or academia.