Novel Spring Mechanism Enables Iterative Energy Accumulation under Force and Deformation Constraints

Fuente: arXiv
Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Dempsey, Cole A., Braun, David J.
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2022
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
_version_ 1866916455294959616
author Dempsey, Cole A.
Braun, David J.
author_facet Dempsey, Cole A.
Braun, David J.
contents Springs can provide force at zero net energy cost by recycling negative mechanical work to benefit motor-driven robots or spring-augmented humans. However, humans have limited force and range of motion, and motors have a limited ability to produce force. These limits constrain how much energy a conventional spring can store and, consequently, how much assistance a spring can provide. In this paper, we introduce an approach to accumulating negative work in assistive springs over several motion cycles. We show that, by utilizing a novel floating spring mechanism, the weight of a human or robot can be used to iteratively increase spring compression, irrespective of the potential energy stored by the spring. Decoupling the force required to compress a spring from the energy stored by a spring advances prior works, and could enable spring-driven robots and humans to perform physically demanding tasks without the use of large actuators.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2212_14382
institution arXiv
publishDate 2022
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Novel Spring Mechanism Enables Iterative Energy Accumulation under Force and Deformation Constraints
Dempsey, Cole A.
Braun, David J.
Robotics
Springs can provide force at zero net energy cost by recycling negative mechanical work to benefit motor-driven robots or spring-augmented humans. However, humans have limited force and range of motion, and motors have a limited ability to produce force. These limits constrain how much energy a conventional spring can store and, consequently, how much assistance a spring can provide. In this paper, we introduce an approach to accumulating negative work in assistive springs over several motion cycles. We show that, by utilizing a novel floating spring mechanism, the weight of a human or robot can be used to iteratively increase spring compression, irrespective of the potential energy stored by the spring. Decoupling the force required to compress a spring from the energy stored by a spring advances prior works, and could enable spring-driven robots and humans to perform physically demanding tasks without the use of large actuators.
title Novel Spring Mechanism Enables Iterative Energy Accumulation under Force and Deformation Constraints
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2212.14382