| | | Richard F. ff. Weir, PhD, Principal Investigator Co-Investigator:
Jon Sensinger, MS As a future direction for our research, we are working on developing series elastic actuators suitable for use in prosthetics. A series elastic actuator (see figure) is a way of making an otherwise stiff DC gearmotor drive compliant. Compliance is desirable for systems (robots, etc) that must interact with the real world. It serves to reduce shock loads and protect the drive. The key issue from a prosthetics perspective is whether such an actuator can work with a non-backdrivable drive train. In prosthetics, clutches/brakes are employed to hold position and applied force in the absence of power. In this way, power can be conserved. We are at present building a prototype bench-top non-backdrivable series elastic actuator. 
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