Programmable springs: Developing actuators with programmable compliance for autonomous robots

Developing real robots that can exploit dynamic interactions with the environment requires the use of actuators whose behaviour can vary from high stiffness to complete compliance or zero impedance. We will outline our design for an electric actuator, called a programmable spring, which can be easily configured using a high level programming interface to emulate complex multimodal spring damping systems. The types of behaviour that our actuator can exhibit are explored, including antagonistic actuation, cyclic behaviour and hysteresis. This system is intended as the basis for a cost effective ’off the shelf’ component for robotics research