Smart tendon-based systems

基于腱的结构由连接到几个刚性体的腱元件（例如缆线）的网络形成，并且构造成处于稳定状态，使得所有腱处于拉伸状态，而刚性体处于压缩状态。对于一定水平的强度，基于腱的结构与常规结构相比具有显著更低的重量和惯性。我已经用这个想法开发了几个新的肌腱为基础的机械手与纯平移运动的高速拾取和放置应用。这些机械手被证明具有令人印象深刻的性能，与顶级商用机器人相比成本更低。拟议的研究将通过将可收缩的致动器（称为人工肌肉）作为主动肌腱集成到基于肌腱的结构中来研究和开发基于智能肌腱的系统。其目标是开发一种新型的超轻机构，其形状和机械性能，包括刚度，可以直接由肌腱的长度和对抗张力控制。使用嵌入式致动器和小型化的能力，这些系统的低重量，高强度和灵活性以及提供复杂运动的能力类似于昆虫的移动能力，因此，可以彻底改变机器人机构的设计方法。将开发两种基于智能肌腱的系统。首先，将设计一个基于多层智能肌腱的系统，作为一个有效载荷重量比大于1的机器人手臂。我们的目标是证明的概念，肌腱为基础的机制，可以有效地改变其形状和配置时，与人工肌肉驱动。在第二种基于肌腱的机制中，由人工肌肉提供的肌腱的内部对抗张力将用于控制刚度。刚度控制可用于构建自适应悬架或机械滤波器，以实现噪声和振动隔离。

Tendon-based structures are formed by a network of tendon elements (such as cables) coupled to a few rigid bodies and configured in a stable state such that all the tendons are in tension and rigid bodies are under compression. Tendon-based structures have significantly lower weight and inertia compared to conventional structures for a certain level of strength. I have used this idea to develop several new tendon-based manipulators with pure translational motion for high speed pick-and-place applications. These manipulators proved to have an impressive performance with less cost compared to the top available commercial robots. The proposed research will study and develop smart tendon-based systems by integrating contractile actuators (known as artificial muscles) as active tendons into tendon-based structures. The goal is to develop a new class of ultra-light mechanisms whose shape and mechanical properties, including stiffness, can be directly controlled by the length and antagonistic tension of the tendons. Use of embedded actuators and capacity for miniaturization, the low weight, high strength and flexibility of these systems and the ability to provide complex motions resemble the moving capabilities of insects and hence, can revolutionize the approaches to the design of robotic mechanisms. Two smart tendon-based systems are to be developed. First, a multi-layer smart tendon-based system will be designed to serve as a robotic arm with a payload-to-weight ratio greater than one. The goal is to prove the concept that tendon-based mechanisms can effectively change their shape and configuration when actuated with artificial muscles. In the second tendon-based mechanism, the internal antagonistic tension of the tendons provided by artificial muscles will be used to control the stiffness. The stiffness control can be used to build adaptive suspensions or mechanical filters for noise and vibration isolation.