Smart tendon-based systems

基于肌腱的结构是由连接到几个刚体的肌腱单元（如电缆）组成的网络，并且处于稳定状态，使得所有的肌腱都处于拉伸状态，而刚体处于压缩状态。与传统结构相比，基于肌腱的结构在一定强度水平下具有显着降低的重量和惯性。我已经用这个想法开发了几种新的基于肌腱的机械手，它们具有纯平移运动，用于高速拾取和放置应用。事实证明，与现有的顶级商用机器人相比，这些机械手具有令人印象深刻的性能和更低的成本。拟议的研究将通过将收缩致动器（称为人造肌肉）作为活动肌腱集成到基于肌腱的结构中来研究和开发基于肌腱的智能系统。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，可以由肌腱的长度和拮抗张力直接控制。使用嵌入式执行器和小型化的能力，这些系统的低重量，高强度和灵活性以及提供类似昆虫移动能力的复杂运动的能力，可以彻底改变机器人机构的设计方法。将开发两种基于肌腱的智能系统。首先，将设计一种多层智能肌腱系统，作为有效载荷重量比大于1的机械臂。我们的目标是证明当用人造肌肉驱动时，基于肌腱的机制可以有效地改变它们的形状和结构。在第二种基于肌腱的机制中，人造肌肉提供的肌腱内部拮抗张力将用于控制刚度。刚度控制可以用来建立自适应悬架或机械滤波器的噪声和振动隔离。

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.