Characterization of emerging actuators for empowering legged robots

Abstract

Research in legged locomotion is directed to new service applications such as lower-limb exoskeletons and agile-locomotion robots. The main difficulty that is limiting their further development is the lack of appropriate actuation systems. The excessive material overhead of high power conventional technologies and the need of means to obtain gait energy recovery are some among the features which need to be improved. The aptitude of an actuation system to perform a certain task can be judged from a little set of parameters describing its rated and maximum capabilities. This paper presents experimental data of a variety of promising actuation technologies, and a final discussion on their suitability for empowering legged robots.