2A2-N05 Worm Gear with Switchable Backdrivability : 2nd Report, The influence that vibration direction gives in backdrivability(Mechanism and Control for Actuator (2))

Abstract

Backdrivability is necessary to make robots compliant to contact. Such compliance is helpful to perform cooperative tasks together with human and to protect mechanisms from a collision. We developed robot hands that can generate a large grasping force and a high speed motion. One of them uses worm gear mechanisms. A worm gear cannot be back-driven because of the friction between the tooth surfaces. Therefore, we developed a worm gear mechanism that can change its backdrivability by the reduction of the friction using vibration. In this paper, we describe the differences in the performance of the backdrivability by the vibration directions. We experimentally confirmed that the vibration to the wheel axis direction improved the performance of the backdrivability than the vibration to the screw axis direction.