Criteria for the evaluation of new actuators as energy converters

Abstract

Criteria for evaluating the performance of new robot actuators whose output torques or forces are a function of their angular displacement or linear displacement, from the point of view of their characteristics as energy converters, are proposed. The power of linear robot actuators which reciprocate is defined as the maximum time average power, analogous to a reciprocating engine; the same power is also defined for a reciprocating rotary actuator. The energy is defined as the one cycle average of the static force or torque when actuators reciprocate statically. In order to evaluate the lightness and compactness of actuators, the power and energy are divided by the mass or volume of the actuators. The criteria are applied to new robot actuators in order to determine their advantages and disadvantages as energy converters. The results show that the evaluations of new robot actuators were made under the significant difference of over a ratio of 2 between the actuators. These criteria are very useful not only for the evaluation of new robot actuators, but also for the development of new robot actuators.