Designing robotic systems is a complex task, due to most of the subsystems being dependent on each other. These interdependencies require a lot of engineering and design experience and a lot of iterations to come up with a good design. It is essential for robotic systems to have a (close to) optimal design as these systems often encounter demanding limitations and constraints. These limitations and constraints vary from limited energy to limited component sizes and to weight limitations.
State-of-the-art robotic mechanism designs use simple actuation topologies, which induce limitations in performance. But research has already found benefits in using more complex designs that mimic human muscle topologies. For instance, bi-articulation of actuators and elastic elements can improve energy efficiency, actuator requirements and improve performance such as peak power.
In this project, we will come up with a design optimisation method for the actuation topology of a robotic leg to improve energy efficiency and to improve performance for a specific task with codesign. The specific task will be jumping, so performance is measured in maximum jump height.
Codesign uses trajectory optimisation to optimise the control inputs of a system to perform a predetermined task while also optimising parameters of the system itself.
Research question: Can a codesign optimisation in actuation topologies improve energy efficiency and/or performance of a jumping robotic leg?
The goals for this project are:
- Creating a codesign optimisation that considers multiple actuation topologies to optimise a robotic leg for jumping.
- Validating the optimisation by building a prototype.