High-Speed position control of dynamic elastic actuator using elastic potential energy

This paper proposes a high speed position control using a new actuation structure. To realize a small-sized and highly-torque actuator, a reduction gear is usually used. So that current saturation and friction effect of the actuator exist, the actuator has the maximum acceleration and maximum revolution speed. The gear with high gear ratio reduces these two maximum values because of the reduction mechanism. As a result, it is difficult to achieve high-speed motions using the gear. In this paper, a new actuation mechanism is utilized to realize high-speed motions. The new mechanism is constructed of an electromagnetic clutch and elastic spring, and high-speed motions are achieved by releasing the clutch and transforming the accumulated elastic potential energy by the geared motor into kinetic energy. Using this new mechanism, high-speed position control is proposed in this paper. In the proposed system, the output revolution speed exceeds the maximum revolution speed that is reduced by the gear. Finally, the validity of the proposed method is verified experimentally.