Heat and Efficiency Considerations in Fluid-Powered Co-Robotics Applications

摘要

Co-robotics is the growing field of robots that people interact with directly, and may even wear. With low average efficiencies for contemporary fluid-power systems, the heat that is liberated by a fluid-powered corobot is a significant issue, not only for longevity, but also for the person working with the system, particularly in applications such as assistive orthoses and exoskeletons. One example is a portable active orthosis that is being developed within the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power (CCEFP). Maximizing the system efficiency minimizes the heat liberated, and the associated issues.