Development of human-friendly robot with collision force suppression mechanism

This paper presents the mechanism of a human-friendly robot that is able to suppress collision forces. The human-friendly robot consists of a mobile base and a manipulator with a collision suppression mechanism. The mechanism is composed of an electromagnetic clutch and a rotary damper. If the manipulator collides with an object, the joint axis of the manipulator separates from the electromagnetic clutch. Then, the collision force is passively suppressed by the damper. Through collision experiments, the effectiveness of the collision mechanism is verified.