A Novel Slack-Enabling Tendon Drive That Improves Efficiency, Size, and Safety in Soft Wearable Robots

Tendon drives are widely used in robotics. The compliance of the tendon in such drives suits them for soft robots, including soft wearable robots, but several issues impede their use. Generally, the tendon should always maintain tension to prevent derailment from the spool. However, in soft robots, tendon tension induces high friction forces owing to the absence of ball bearings. Because the kinematics of the soft robot is basically nonlinear and changed by the deformation of the structure, the kinematic difference between the soft structure and the spool causes derailment of the tendon. Moreover, continuously maintained tension in soft wearable robots causes safety issues. The linear actuator can be an option. However, the need to increase the length of the linear actuator to accommodate the excursion length of its tendon is a barrier to its use in small-scale applications. To preclude this issue, a slack-enabling actuator that employs a spool is proposed. The space efficiency of the spool enables the mechanism to be small, and a one-way clutch applies unidirectional friction force to the tendon to tighten the tendon around the spool. This paper describes the design concept for the slack-enabling mechanism, its design optimization, and system identification for force control.