This paper presents the design of a gas-actuated anthropomorphic arm prosthesis with 21 degrees of freedom and nine independent actuators. The prosthesis utilizes the monopropellant hydrogen peroxide as a gas generator to power nine pneumatic type actuators. Of the nine independent actuators, one provides direct- drive actuation of the elbow, three provide direct-drive actuation for the wrist, and the remaining five actuate an underactuated 17 degree of freedom hand. This paper describes the design of the prosthesis, including the design of small-scale high-performance servovalves, which enable the implementation of the monopropellant concept in a transhumeral prosthesis. Experimental results are given characterizing both the servovalve performance and the force and/or motion control of various joints under closed-loop control.

This paper presents the design of an anthropomorphic 21 degree-of-freedom, 9 degree-of-actuation arm prosthesis for use by transhumeral amputees. The design leverages the power density of pneumatic actuation with the energy density of liquid propellants to obtain a self-powered dexterous prosthesis in which all of the requisite power, actuation, and sensing is packaged within the volumetric envelope of a normal human arm. Specifically, the arm utilizes a monopropellant as a gas generator to power nine pneumatic-type actuators that drive an elbow, three wrist degrees-of-freedom, and a 17 degree-of-freedom compliant hand. The design considerations discussed in this work include the design of compact, low-power servovalves; the choice of actuators based on energetic requirements of a normal arm; the design of compact elbow and wrist joints with integrated position and force sensing; and the components of the compliant hand design. The liquid-fueled prosthesis is expected to approach the dexterity of an anatomical arm and is projected to deliver half of the force and power output of an average human arm.

This paper presents and experimentally demonstrates a control methodology that provides transparency and stability robustness in bilateral telemanipulator systems. The approach is based upon a previously published method that structures the human-manipulators-environment system in a manner that enables the application of frequency-domain loop-shaping methods. This paper reformulates the human-manipulator interaction described in the previously published work, and experimentally demonstrates the approach on a single degree-of-freedom telemanipulation system. Experimental measurements indicate significant improvements offered by the method in both the stability robustness and transparency of the human-manipulators-environment system. Finally, experimental results are presented that demonstrate the robustness in the transparency to significant changes in the environment dynamics.

Describes a design technique for simultaneously increasing the transparency bandwidth and stability robustness of a two-channel position-force bilateral teleoperation architecture. Specifically, the stability and performance enhancements are obtained by introducing a dynamic compensator into the system to shape the frequency-domain properties of the human-teleoperator-environment loop. This design technique is demonstrated in a single degree-of-freedom numerical example.

This paper addresses the modeling and control of a compliant micromanipulator for use in such fields as microsurgery, telesurgery, and microassembly. The unique flexure-based manipulator utilizes revolute flexure joints in achieving well-behaved kinematic characteristics, without the backlash and stick-slip phenomena that would otherwise impede precision control. A mathematical model of the micromanipulator is formulated, and a controller for positioning of the manipulator is derived. The model and resulting controller are unlike typical manipulator models and controllers since this manipulator is actually a controlled large range-of-motion structure with nonlinear structural dynamics. Following the development of the controller, computer simulations of the proposed controller on the manipulator are used to verify the positioning performance.