Study on Human-Powered Robotics

-9th Report: The power assist using regenerative energy for the human-powered joint mechanism -

Abstract

The goal of this study is to propose the concept “Human-powered robotics,” which is a methodology to design the robotic system which can control the joint by directly using a power applied by the operator. This paper illustrates the proposal of the driving assist method not to lose safety using regenerative energy on 1-DOF human-powered joint control system using servo clutches with regenerative brakes and differential gears. We proposed an assist control system keeping unchanged the torque of input shaft and reducing the load of friction in the mechanism. We evaluated the proposed control system by using a prototype.