A flexible spine human-form robot-development and control of the posture of the spine

Author

Mizuuchi, Ikuo ; Inaba, Masayuki ; Inoue, Hirochika

Author_Institution

Dept. of Mechano-Informatics, Univ. of Tokyo, Japan

Volume

4

fYear

2001

fDate

2001

Firstpage

2099

Abstract

The development of a robot which has a flexible spine is presented. By embedding a multi-DOF (degree of freedom) soft structure into a robot body as a spine, the robot can increase its ability to absorb shock and the ability to work in various environments such as narrow places or human fields, and its motion could be more natural. The developed full-body human-form robot has a five-jointed flexible spine. Each joint (vertebra) has 3 DOFs. Between each two vertebrae is a "disk" made of silicone rubber. The spine is controlled by eight tendons, whose tensions can be controlled using tension-sensors and locally distributed microcontrollers. The paper describes the development of the flexible spine and the control of the posture of the spine and body

Keywords

force sensors; motion control; position control; robots; spatial variables control; five-jointed flexible spine; flexible spine human-form robot; locally distributed microcontrollers; multi-DOF soft structure; posture control; tendons; tension sensors; Electric shock; Flexible structures; Hip; Humanoid robots; Humans; Joints; Rubber; Spine; Tendons; Torso;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2001. Proceedings. 2001 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on

Conference_Location

Maui, HI

Print_ISBN

0-7803-6612-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IROS.2001.976381

Filename

976381