New enhancements to robotics ‘can allow for safer care provision’

Scientists have developed new improvements to current robotic technology that could help to make such devices safer for use in care applications.

A team from the University of Twente have added a type of elastic spring to the actuator featured in robots, allowing the mechanised device to behave in a more elastic way and yielding when it collides with an obstacle.

This technology, known as a variable stiffness actuator, has never before been used in assistive robotics, and could allow robot technology to be used in a more responsive way that safeguards the patient.

Positioning the actuator differently has also been shown to help. At present, robotic joints often feature a single electromotor, but the team's new approach takes inspiration from the human body which uses muscles that move two joints simultaneously.

This principle has been incorporated in the research and provides the robot arm with greater elastic properties. Using variable stiffness actuators and robot arms based on a network structure could make it easier to develop an arm suited for the healthcare sector.

Researcher Stefan Groothuis said: "We believe this can form the basis of a new generation of robots in the care sector: robots that can carry out more everyday tasks in a safer way, while simultaneously remaining extremely precise."