Adjustable Compliance Joint with Torsion Spring for Human Centered Robots

International audienceHuman-centred robots should be human-friendly, safe and impact-free. The present work is devoted to the problem of adjustable compliance implementation during the human friendly robots design. A new solution of a compliant joint with passive compliance adjustment based on a leaf torsion spring with variable length is presented. It allows independent positioning and stiffness regulation in a wide range. Some basic characteristics of the leaf torsion spring such as: stiffness, compliance, allowable torque, angle of elastic deformation and generated potential energy are analyzed. Thereafter numerical simulations are performed and the influence of the structural parameters on the basic compliant joint characteristics is estimated. Tests with a specially realized prototype of adjustable compliant joint are carried out and the basic characteristics of the prototype are evaluated. The results from the experimental assessment show a very good correlation with the numerical ones