This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination.C ompliant actuator technology aims at building robots capable of physically interacting with humans and the environment, matching the versatility and capacity of biological systems. Recently, it underwent a significant evolution with the introduction of damping to improve performance. Such development reflects several aspects, including energy saving and oscillation mitigation. However, large damping values tend to increase the system impedance, worsening robot resilience and human safety during impacts. That suggests the importance of a correct tradeoff.This article reviews the application of damping solutions to compliant actuation. We classify damper systems based on the amount of active control, their physical operation principle, and the topological position of the damping element used in the various actuators. Then we study the fields of application of these devices and analyze how different design aspects correlate with one another and applications. This analysis yields insight into how design choices can influence the characteristics of actuators and the robots using them, from the viewpoint of robot resilience, human safety, power consumption, and energy storage. Finally, we provide an annotated database of the papers considered to conduct this review. OverviewThe field of compliant robotic actuation has been growing [1],[2], motivated by the intention of building robots able to cope with unknown environments [3], behave safely in humanrobot interaction [4], tolerate shocks [5], store energy [6], [7], and move agilely on legs [8]- [10]. Nevertheless, when compared to rigid equivalent robots, compliant actuation underperforms in some domains. Among other aspects, reduced control authority bandwidth can lead to undesired oscillations and vibrations [11], which can, in turn, reduce precision, compromise stability, and waste energy. Through the years, it became clear that to mitigate such limitations [12], which can jeopardize the very advantage of using compliant actuation in the first place, the inclusion of some form of damping action [13] is mandatory.
Robots face the eventuality of falling. Unplanned events, external disturbances and technical failures may lead a robot to a condition where even an effective dynamic stabilization is not sufficient to maintain the equilibrium. Therefore, it is essential to equip robotic platforms with both active and passive fall protection means to minimize damages, and enable the recovery and restart without physical human intervention. This work introduces a method to design an integrated safety system for two-wheeled humanoids. As a case study, the method is applied to a robot and experimentally tested under several conditions corresponding to different causes of robot instability, such as motor jamming, external disturbances, and sudden shutdown .
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