Abstract
Highly rigid actuators such as a geared motor or hydraulic actuator are widely used in industrial robots. To obtain high-speed motion, it is necessary to increase the actuator output as the robot weight increases. In contrast, humans perform motions with instantaneous force-as in a jump or throw-via variable viscoelastic characteristics. Therefore, we developed a manipulator with variable viscoelastic joint using an artificial muscle and a magnetorheological(MR) brake. Furthermore, we generated instantaneous force, and the dead and rise times decreased compared to the conventional method. In this paper, we controlled the arm position after arbitrary instantaneous force by applying equilibrium of force to the joint. Furthermore, we controlled the arm vibrations by controlling the MR brake using an evaluation function. The results obtained were quite satisfactory.
