TY - GEN
T1 - BICEP
T2 - 16th International Workshop on Human-Friendly Robotics, HFR 2023
AU - Castañeda, Theophil Spiegeler
AU - Horstman, Bart
AU - Capsi-Morales, Patricia
AU - Santina, Cosimo Della
AU - Piazza, Cristina
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - Adopting compliant structures holds the potential to enhance the robustness and interaction capabilities of the next generation of bionic limbs. Although researchers have proficiently explored this approach in the design of artificial hands, they devoted little attention to the development of more proximal joints. This work presents a compliant prosthetic elbow prototype called BICEP. The design incorporates compliant cross-axis flexural pivots that connect the upper and lower arm without direct contact between the two links. The actuation architecture, inspired by biological mechanisms, employs one actuator and two tendons to create an agonist-antagonist mechanism. This joint enables rotation along its flexion-extension axis while maintaining flexibility in out-of-plane directions, in a system with an overall weight of 351 g. A preliminary evaluation showcases lifting capacities supporting up to 2500 g, and a maximum speed of 157∘ per second across a 135∘ range of motion. The soft cross-axis flexural pivots exhibit compliant behavior in both the sagittal and transversal planes, enabling a pleasant interaction with the environment and ensuring safe absorption of unintentional impacts.
AB - Adopting compliant structures holds the potential to enhance the robustness and interaction capabilities of the next generation of bionic limbs. Although researchers have proficiently explored this approach in the design of artificial hands, they devoted little attention to the development of more proximal joints. This work presents a compliant prosthetic elbow prototype called BICEP. The design incorporates compliant cross-axis flexural pivots that connect the upper and lower arm without direct contact between the two links. The actuation architecture, inspired by biological mechanisms, employs one actuator and two tendons to create an agonist-antagonist mechanism. This joint enables rotation along its flexion-extension axis while maintaining flexibility in out-of-plane directions, in a system with an overall weight of 351 g. A preliminary evaluation showcases lifting capacities supporting up to 2500 g, and a maximum speed of 157∘ per second across a 135∘ range of motion. The soft cross-axis flexural pivots exhibit compliant behavior in both the sagittal and transversal planes, enabling a pleasant interaction with the environment and ensuring safe absorption of unintentional impacts.
KW - Bioinspired Systems
KW - Compliant Mechanism
KW - Soft Robotics
KW - Upper Limb Prosthetics
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85188681782&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-031-55000-3_3
DO - 10.1007/978-3-031-55000-3_3
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85188681782
SN - 9783031549991
T3 - Springer Proceedings in Advanced Robotics
SP - 36
EP - 49
BT - Human-Friendly Robotics 2023 - HFR
A2 - Piazza, Cristina
A2 - Capsi-Morales, Patricia
A2 - Figueredo, Luis
A2 - Keppler, Manuel
A2 - Schütze, Hinrich
PB - Springer Nature
Y2 - 20 September 2023 through 21 September 2023
ER -