NRI: FND: Hybrid Active-Passive Actuation for Safety and Performance in Physical Human-Robot Collaboration and Rehabilitation

人与机器人之间的物理合作需要一系列传统机器人难以满足的性能特征。有时机器人必须具有高刚度，以支撑人与之一起工作或执行其自身的精确任务的物体，但有时机器人必须具有低刚度，以确保与其接触的人的安全。有时机器人必须控制其自身与人之间的相互作用力，但是在其它时候，它必须沿沿着精确的路径移动而不管施加到它的力如何。现有的致动器例如电动、气动或液压马达不能实现这种性能组合，因此需要一种新的机器人致动器方法。这个国家机器人计划（NRI）研究项目将研究使用主动组件（电机）和被动组件（制动器）组合的机器人的设计和控制，以满足这些相反的需求。这种驱动方法被称为平衡主动-被动混合驱动，将提供高功率能力，同时拥有人类-机器人物理协作所需的独特特性。这项研究将为人与机器人之间的合作提供新的能力，并将打开合作高功率制造机器人，高功率康复机器人和高性能外骨骼等未服务的应用领域。一个重要的应用是康复机器人，用于在神经损伤（如中风）后重新训练有意运动。在这项研究中开发的混合主动-被动致动器将被应用于创建一个强大，准确，但也安全的腿部康复机器人，它将用于测试腿部力量和运动控制，并为中风幸存者开发康复方法。本计画的目标是发展主动被动混合作动器的设计原理与控制方法，以提供高功率与高力控制频宽。该研究将结合联合收割机的串联弹性电动机的低带宽力控制，并联直接驱动电动机的高带宽力控制，和并联制动器的有效的非常高的带宽支持对施加的外力。根据这些设计原则，将建立一个物理测试致动器，并用于开发和测试一个带宽划分控制器，用于协调多个致动器。由此产生的设计和控制技术将被用来建立一个两轴并联联动机械手施加任意平面力场的脚的人类用户。该系统将测试其触觉渲染虚拟机械环境，如粘性旋度场的能力。这些卷曲领域将被用于研究腿部的运动控制，目的是为中风幸存者开发康复任务，以促进协调运动和姿势控制的恢复。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

Physical cooperation between a person and a robot requires a range of performance characteristics that is difficult for traditional robots to meet. Sometimes a robot must have high stiffness to support an object for a person to work with or to perform a precise task of its own, but at other times it must have low stiffness to ensure the safety of a person who makes contact with it. Sometimes a robot must control the interaction force between itself and a person, but at other times it must move along a precise path regardless of the force applied to it. Existing actuators such as electric, pneumatic or hydraulic motors cannot achieve this performance combination, so a new approach to robotic actuators is required. This National Robotics Initiative (NRI) research project will study the design and control of robots that use a combination of active components (motors) and passive components (brakes) to meet these opposing demands. This actuation approach, referred to as Balanced Active-Passive Hybrid Actuation, will provide high power capabilities while possessing the unique characteristics required for human-robot physical collaboration. This research will enable new capabilities for cooperation between people and robots and will open unserved application areas such as cooperative high-power manufacturing robots, high-power rehabilitation robots, and high-performance exoskeletons. One important application is rehabilitation robotics for retraining intentional movement after neural injury such as stroke. The hybrid active-passive actuators developed in this research will be applied to create a strong and accurate, yet also safe, rehabilitation robot for the legs, which will be used to test leg force and movement control and develop rehabilitation methods for stroke survivors. The goal of this project is to develop design principles and control approaches for hybrid active-passive actuators capable of providing high power and high force-control bandwidth. The research will combine a series-elastic electric motor for low-bandwidth force control, a parallel direct-drive electric motor for high-bandwidth force control, and a parallel brake for efficient very high-bandwidth support against applied external forces. A physical test actuator will be built according to these design principles and used to develop and test a bandwidth-partitioning controller for coordinating the multiple actuators. The resulting design and control techniques will be used to build a two-axis parallel linkage manipulator for applying arbitrary planar force fields to the foot of a human user. The system will be tested for its ability to haptically render virtual mechanical environments such as viscous curl fields. These curl fields will be used to study motor control of the leg, with the goal of developing rehabilitative tasks for stroke survivors to promote the recovery of coordinated movement and postural control.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.