Preliminary Result of Cury: A Backdrivable Leg Design Using Linear Actuators

Abstract

This paper reports the design, simulation, and experiment of a robotic leg prototype named Cury, which has the potential to achieve minimal clearance and excellent backdrivability. Inspired by human walking data, the actuator design incorporates four-bar linkages and ball screws and is further optimized to meet the torque requirement. The Webots simulation is used to obtain the closed-loop chain description of the robotic leg from fits the URDF specification, and this simulation is used to assess the actuator output requirements at a given predefined trajectory. Leveraging customized ac motors and drives, Cury demonstrates satisfactory trajectory tracking performance using a simple controller. The motor drive design files and Webots simulation files are open-sourced.