• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.524-530
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• 2015

Early wearable robotic devices were big, powerful and manipulator-like. Recently, various applications of wearable robotics have shown a greater demand for lower weight and compliancy. One approach to achieve these objectives is the use of novel actuators such as twisted string actuators. These actuator are very light, quiet, mechanically simple and compliant. Therefore, they can drastically decrease the weight and size of robotic systems such as exoskeletons. However, one drawback of this actuator is its nonlinear transmission ratio, which is established as a ratio between the angle of twisting of the strings and their resulting contraction. In this paper, we propose a transmission mechanism with rotational motion as the output incorporating a twisted string actuator (TSA). The designed mechanism allows the linearization of the relationships between the input and output displacements and forces of a TSA. The proposed design has been validated theoretically and through a set of computer simulations. A detailed analysis of the performance of the proposed mechanism is presented in this paper along with a design guideline.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.221-227
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• 2019

This paper studies an effect of vibration on twisted string actuation inside conduit at high curvature angles. In our previous work. we have mentioned that twisted string actuators can be used to transmit power even at significant curvature angles of the conduit. However, several undesirable effects, namely pull-back, hysteresis, and chattering, were present during actuation due to friction between strings and the internal sheath of the conduit. This paper reports the results of experimental study on effects of vibration on twisted string actuation inside curved conduits. We have demonstrated that applying vibration generated near natural frequency of the system during the stages of twisting and untwisting cycles helped reduce pull-back and hysteresis and increase string contraction. In case when sheath was deflected by $180^{\circ}$ under a constant load of 3 kg, we were able to achieve over 40% decrease in pull-back and 30% decrease in hysteresis, compared with no vibration case.