VIACTORS

The Viactor robots are expected to be safe, in the sense that interacting with them should not constitute a higher injury risk to humans than the interaction with another cautious human. This requires that robots with similar size and mass as the humans also have comparable power, strength, velocity and interaction compliance. This ambitious goal can, however, not be achieved with the existing robot technology, in which the robots are designed primarily as rigid position or torque sources and most interaction skills are imposed by virtue of control software. Also, conventional robots in which interaction is controlled by software only, could not avoid an impact to damage the robot and possibly the human neighbour, as the controller will react with some delay. This project will develop both a solid theoretical understanding and the enabling technologies for the design of a new generation of robot actuator systems, capable of embodying the physical principles which shape the robot behaviour.