Wire-tension control using Compact Planetary geared Elastic Actuator

Abstract

The tension control of wires can benefit from Series Elastic Actuator (SEA), which is a potential emerging actuator system. In this paper, it is verified that the tension of wires can be successfully controlled by a novel SEA, called Compact Planetary-geared Elastic Actuator (cPEA), which incorporates a planetary gear and a spring to achieve precise force sensing and compactness at the same time. The design of model-based tension control and impedance compensator using cPEA is introduced, and the experiments that show the effectiveness of the proposed control are provided.