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

今天的机械臂要么太不安全，要么太脆弱，无法用于许多应用。由于传感器和软件永远不会100%可靠，因此在工厂里机器人手臂可以与人并肩工作或与人合作之前(而不是目前将机器人手臂隔离在安全栅栏后面的做法)，以及在辅助生活等非制造业应用中帮助人们之前，必须使机器人手臂具有内在的安全性。本质上安全的机械臂即使在传感器或软件发生故障时也不会造成伤害。一种方法是通过严格限制手臂的速度和力输出来实现这一点。然而，这将使手臂对于许多应用而言过于低效和/或脆弱。一个更好的方法是机械地设计它的部件，以防止在手臂与人相撞时产生有害的冲击力。

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.