Self-sensing of coil springs and twisted and coiled polymer muscles

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Abstract

The need to integrate robots in society grows, as several socioeconomic issues put pressure on our current level of productivity and prosperity. This requires robots to safely interact with unpredictable and fragile stakeholders, such as humans. Compliant actuation can facilitate such safe physical interaction.
The Series Elastic Actuator (SEA) and the Twisted and Coiled PolymerMuscle (TCPM) constitute two compliant actuators with favorable properties. However, both need sensors to be able to performclosed-loop control. This complicates design and integration of SEAs, and negates two major benefits of TCPMs. This problem can be solved by determining the state of the actuator via structures ormaterials that are already part of the actuator, i.e. self-sensing....

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