Variable Impedance Actuators (VIA) have received increasing attention in recent years as many novel applications involving interactions with an unknown and dynamic environment including humans require actuators with dynamics that are not well-achieved by classical stiff actuators. This paper presents an overview of the different VIAs developed and proposes a classification based on the principles through which the variable stiffness and damping are achieved. The main classes are active impedance by control, inherent compliance and damping actuators, inertial actuators, and combinations of them, which are then further divided into subclasses. This classification allows for designers of new devices to orientate and take inspiration and users of VIA's to be guided in the design and implementation process for their targeted application.

| this paper outlines the 2nd generation of multisensory hand design at DLR. The results of the use of DLR's Hand I were analyzed and enabled -in addition to the big e orts made in grasping technology -to design the next generation of dextrous robot hands. An open skeleton structure for better maintenance with semi shell housings and the new automatically recon gurable palm have been equipped with more powerful actuators to reach 30N on the ngertip. Newly designed sensors as the 6 DOF ngertip force torque sensor and integrated electronics together with the new communication architecture which enables a reduction of the cabling to the hand to only 12 lines outline the electronics concept. The Cartesian impedance c ontrol of all the ngers completes the new hand with its 13 DOF to what it is: the next step to autonomous and humanoid grasping

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Variable stiffness actuators (VSAs) are complex mechatronic devices that are developed to build passively compliant, robust, and dexterous robots. Numerous different hardware designs have been developed in the past two decades to address various demands on their functionality. This review paper gives a guide to the design process from the analysis of the desired tasks identifying the relevant attributes and their influence on the selection of different components such as motors, sensors, and springs. The influence on the performance of different principles to generate the passive compliance and the variation of the stiffness are investigated. Furthermore, the design contradictions during the engineering process are explained in order to find the best suiting solution for the given purpose. With this in mind, the topics of output power, potential energy capacity, stiffness range, efficiency, and accuracy are discussed. Finally, the dependencies of control, models, sensor setup, and sensor quality are addressed

While the components of the MiroSurge system are shown to fulfil the rigid design requirements for robotic telesurgery with force feedback, the system remains versatile, which is supposed to be a key issue for the further development and optimisation.

Physical human–robot interaction implies the intersection of human and robot workspaces and intrinsically favors collision. The robustness of the most exposed parts, such as the hands, is crucial for effective and complete task execution of a robot. Considering the scales, we think that the robustness can only be achieved by the use of energy storage mechanisms, e.g. in elastic elements. The use of variable stiffness drives provides a low-pass filtering of impacts and allows stiffness adjustments depending on the task. However, using these drive principles does not guarantee the safety of the human due to the dramatically increased dynamics of such system. The design methodology of an antagonistically tendon-driven hand is explained. The resulting hand, very close to its human archetype in terms of size, weight, and, in particular, grasping performance, robustness, and dynamics, is presented. The hyper-actuated hand is a research platform that will also be used to investigate the importance of mechanical couplings and, in future projects, be the basis of a simplified hand that would still perform daily manipulation tasks.

Since their introduction in the early years of this century, variable stiffness actuators (VSA) witnessed a sustained growth of interest in the research community, as shown by the growing number of publications. While many consider VSA very interesting for applications, one of the factors hindering their further diffusion is the relatively new conceptual structure of this technology. When choosing a VSA for their application, educated practitioners, who are used to choosing robot actuators based on standardized procedures and uniformly presented data, would be confronted with an inhomogeneous and rather disorganized mass of information coming mostly from scientific publications. In this paper, the authors consider how the design procedures and data presentation of a generic VSA could be organized so as to minimize the engineer's effort in choosing the actuator type and size that would best fit the application needs. The reader is led through the list of the most important parameters that will determine the ultimate performance of their VSA robot, and influence both the mechanical design and the controller shape. This set of parameters extends the description of a traditional electric actuator with quantities describing the capability of the VSA to change its output stiffness. As an instrument for the enduser, the VSA datasheet is intended to be a compact, self-contained description of an actuator that summarizes all of the salient characteristics that the user must be aware of when choosing a device for their application. At the end some examples of compiled VSA datasheets are reported, as well as a few examples of actuator selection procedures.