Design of High Torque Variable Stiffness Actuator with Fast Adjustment and Wide Range of Stiffness Using Lever and Parallel Mechanism

Abstract

Variable stiffness actuators (VSAs) have demonstrated remarkable potential advantages in safety and efficiency. However, the performance of previous actuators is not sufficient for leg motion of bipedal robots, which needs high torque with fast adjustment and wide range of stiffness. In this study, we developed “lever and parallel mechanism” VSA (LaP-VSA),intending to achieve high-performance specifications. It features parallel mechanism and lever force transmission to achieve high performance. The experimental results demonstrate wide range of variable stiffness, large torque output, and fast stiffness adjustment.