Generation of the swing motion pattern of a multi-link robot for the explosive increase of the kinetic energy of the end-link by exploiting the elasticity and the dynamic coupling

Abstract

This paper describes how to exploit the elasticity and the dynamic coupling of a multi-link robot with elastic elements to improve the motion ability without depending on only actuator power. The focus is on swing motion (e.g., throwing or kicking motion) in this paper. The prime purpose of the swing motion is to increase the kinetic energy of an end-link (e.g., hand or foot). This paper proposed a method to generate a swing motion pattern for the increase of the kinetic energy of the end-link. In general, the multi-link robot has high-power actuators in the base side. The high-power actuators can produce a large amount of mechanical energy. Mathematical models were constructed to transfer mechanical energy from the base side toward the end side by exploiting the elasticity and the dynamic coupling. The swing motion pattern was generated on the basis of the models. The results of simulation experiments showed that the kinetic energy of the end-link increased explosively. The reason was that a large amount of energy produced by the actuators in the base side was transferred toward the end side.

Keywords

• elasticity
• dynamic coupling
• multi-link robot
• swing motion pattern
• kinetic chain
• duffing oscillator