Robotic systems operating in unstructured environments face a conflicting requirement: they must be manoeuvrable to easily navigate tight and unstructured environments, yet stiff enough to perform precise, heavy-duty tasks. Tendon-driven hyper-redundant manipulators offer a compelling solution due to their lightweight and slender designs. In this work, a novel stiffness-adjusting strategy for a tendon-driven manipulator is presented. It goes beyond complex antagonistic drives, joint-level added components, and passive high-pretension schemes. This approach utilises a single active tensioning system to modulate a global reference tension, providing on-demand stiffness adjustment on the robot. Through a systematic experimental campaign involving varying payloads and tension levels, the behaviour of a five-degree-of-freedom prototype is characterised using high-precision motion capture. The results demonstrate that this mechanically simple input can amplify tip stiffness by a factor of three to four. Furthermore, the presented compliance model validates the efficiency of the global tensioning strategy in modulating the system’s overall stiffness.
A. Poka, Federico Manara, D. Ludovico et al.· 2026 IEEE/ASME International...· 0 citations
Recent statistics on work-related non-fatal and fatal injuries show that falls from height (FFH) are the leading causes, having a negative impact on socio-economic levels. Among industrial sectors, the construction industry has the highest rate of fatal injuries. Although safety harnesses, personal protective equipment (PPE), and collective protection systems are mandated by national laws, these tools have been insufficient to effectively address the problem. Smart wearable technologies and advanced materials can help predict and react to FFH events. This work proposes the design of a new fallimpact-mitigation wearable airbag to protect the front and back of the user, integrated into a technical vest. The system is activated by a falling-risk-estimation algorithm that can distinguish between voluntary movements and accidental falls. The device meets level-2 protection requirements according to EN1621-4, offering protection to users falling from 1.5 to 4 m. The proposed apparatus naturally extends this to types of falls from the same level.
S. Leggieri, Christian Di Natali, Fabio Colombo et al.· International Conference on...· 0 citations
