Criteria for Evaluation of New Robot Actuators as Energy Converters

Abstract

Criteria to evaluate the performance of new robot actuators whose output torques or forces are the function of their angular displacement, from the point of view of the characteristics as energy converters, are proposed. The power of linear actuators which reciprocate, is defined as the maximum time average power from the analogous image with a reciprocating engine, and also the same power is defined for the reciprocating rotary actuator. The energy is defined as the one cycle average of static force or torque when actuators reciprocate statically. In order to evaluate the lightness and compactness of actuators, the power and energy are devided by the mass or volume of the actuators. The criteria were applied to new robot actuators to know their merits and demerits as energy converters. As the results, their situations are made clear by the significant difference over two times of the evaluation values among each other, and moreover it was understood that these criteria are very useful not only for the evaluations of new robot actuators but also for the development of new robot actuators.