Resistance-based joint constraint for a master robotic system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10843330-B2
Application number	US-201715835280-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 7, 2017
Priority date	Dec 7, 2017
Publication date	Nov 24, 2020
Grant date	Nov 24, 2020

Abstract

A master robotic system for translating a force at a slave robotic system to the master robotic system comprises a plurality of master brake joints rotatably coupling a plurality of robotic links. Each master brake joint corresponds to a respective slave joint of a slave robotic system. Each master brake joint comprises a first braking component (e.g., sheet disk(s)) coupled to a first robotic link and a second braking component (e.g., sheet disk(s)) coupled to a second robotic link, and an actuator operable to act upon the first braking component and the second braking component, to generate a braking force between the first braking component and the second braking component, in response to a control signal corresponding to a sensed force sensed by the slave robotic system. The actuator can comprise a bi-directional actuator, or a cam, piezoelectric, dielectric, or hydraulic actuator, each having minimal power requirements to maximize the braking force of the master brake joint.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A force-reflective master robotic brake joint assembly for translating a force at a slave robotic system to a master robotic system, comprising:
a first braking component associated with a first robotic link of a master robotic system, the first braking component comprising a pair of upper compression disks and a pair of lower compression disks;
a second braking component associated with a second robotic link of the master robotic system, the second braking component comprising an upper compression disk disposed between the pair of upper compression disks and a lower compression disk disposed between the pair of lower compression disks, wherein the second braking component is configured to rotate relative to the first braking component; and
an actuator disposed between the pair of upper compression disks and the pair of lower compression disks and configured to act upon the first braking component and the second braking component to generate a braking force between the first braking component and the second braking component in response to a control signal corresponding to a force sensed by a slave robotic system.

2. The force-reflective master robotic brake joint assembly of claim 1 , wherein the braking force is variable.

3. The force-reflective master robotic brake joint assembly of claim 1 , wherein the braking force is non-variable.

4. The force-reflective master robotic brake joint assembly of claim 1 , wherein a magnitude of the braking force is variable, and a proportionality of the braking force to the sensed force is dynamically controllable.

5. The force-reflective master robotic brake joint assembly of claim 1 , wherein the actuator comprises a bi-directional actuator having a actuator and an actuation member, wherein the actuator is configured to rotate the actuation member to apply a bi-directional force to at least one of the first braking component or the second braking component to generate the braking force.

6. The force-reflective master robotic brake joint assembly of claim 5 , wherein the actuation member comprises a rigid body having oppositely extending arms, a first roller rotatably coupled to one of the arms, and a second roller rotatably coupled to the other of the arms, the rollers being configured to reduce friction between the actuation member and the first braking component and the second braking component.

7. The force-reflective master robotic brake joint assembly of claim 1 , wherein the actuator comprises a dielectric actuator configured to generate the braking force, wherein the dielectric actuator comprises a dielectric material disposed between a pair of electrodes coupled to a voltage source.

8. The force-reflective master robotic brake joint assembly of claim 1 , wherein the actuator comprises a piezoelectric actuator configured to generate the braking force, wherein the piezoelectric actuator comprises a stack of piezoelectric components configured to be coupled to a voltage source configured to displace the stack of piezoelectric components.

9. The force-reflective master robotic brake joint assembly of claim 1 , wherein the actuator comprises a fluid actuator configured to generate the braking force, wherein the fluid actuator comprises a fluid actuation component and at least one piston fluidly coupled to the fluid actuation component, wherein the fluid actuation component is positioned distally from the at least one piston and is configured to actuate the at least one piston to generate the braking force.

10. The force-reflective master robotic brake joint assembly of claim 1 , wherein the first braking component and the second braking component comprise an interleaved multi-disk configuration compressible to generate the braking force.

11. The force-reflective master robotic brake joint assembly of claim 1 , wherein the actuator comprises a first biasing component and an opposing second biasing component, the first biasing component selectively biasing an inner disk of the pair of upper compression disks and the second biasing component selectively biasing an opposing inner disk of the pair of lower compression disks.

12. The force-reflective master robotic brake joint assembly of claim 1 , wherein the actuator is attached to a support portion of the first braking component between the pairs of upper and lower compression disks.

13. The force-reflective master robotic brake joint assembly of claim 1 , wherein the actuator is positioned between the pairs of upper and lower compression disks.

14. The force-reflective master robotic brake joint assembly of claim 1 , wherein the actuator comprises a cam member fixedly attached to an actuator shaft, the cam member comprising a cam having an eccentric configuration configured to convert rotational motion in the cam member to translation motion within the first braking component and the second braking component, thereby compressing the first braking component and the second braking component together.

15. The force-reflective master robotic brake joint assembly of claim 1 , further comprising a processor facilitating processing of the control signal.

16. A force-reflective robotic system for translating a force of a slave robotic system to a master robotic system, comprising:
a slave robotic system comprising a plurality of slave joints; and
a master robotic system having a plurality of master brake joints, each corresponding to a respective one of the slave joints controllable by the master robotic system,
wherein each master brake joint comprises a first braking component comprising an upper pair of compression disks and a lower pair of lower compression disks, and a second braking component comprising an upper compression disk situated between the upper pair of compression disks, and a lower compression disk situated between the lower pair of compression disks, the compression disks of the first braking component being rotatable relative to the disks of the second braking component, and an actuator disposed between the upper and lower pairs of compression disks of the first braking component, and configured to act on these to compress each of the upper and lower compression disks of the second braking component to generate a braking force in response to a control signal corresponding to a force sensed by the slave robotic system.

17. The force-reflective robotic system of claim 16 , wherein the master robotic system comprises one of a humanoid robotic assembly, an exoskeleton robotic assembly, and a human-operated robotic assembly.

18. The force-reflective robotic system of claim 16 , wherein the master robotic system comprises at least one of an upper body exoskeleton and a lower body exoskeleton, each comprising a plurality of exoskeleton links rotatably coupled together by one of the master brake joints.

19. The force-reflective robotic system of claim 16 , wherein the master robotic system comprises a controller configured to control each of the master brake joints, the controller comprising a computer configured to dynamically control the braking force associated with each master brake joint.

20. The force-reflective robotic system of claim 16 , wherein each slave joint comprises one or more sensors configured to provide position data, velocity data, force data or both position and force data associated with the slave joint.

21. The force-reflective robotic system of claim 16 , wherein the actuator is dynamically controllable by the master robotic system and comprises a bi-directional actuato

Assignees

• Sarcos Corp

Inventors

• Smith Fraser M
• Olivier Marc X

Classifications

• B25J19/0004

  Braking devices (brakes in general F16D) · CPC title

• B25J17/0241 Primary

  One-dimensional joints · CPC title

• B25J9/14

  fluid · CPC title

• B25J9/12

  electric · CPC title

• B25J9/0006

  Exoskeletons, i.e. resembling a human figure · CPC title