This thesis presents the design, simulation, and evaluation of a passive, wearable, and human-scale actuator that includes pulleys and uses polymers for energy storage. Repetitive tasks such as packing boxes on an assembly line may require high strength movements of the shoulder, arm, and hand and may result in musculoskeletal disorders. With the objective to offset the weight of the arm and thereby lower the forces on the muscles in the shoulder and arm, this actuator is able to provide gravity compensation for the upper extremities of workers, if used in conjunction with an arm exoskeleton. The actuator is passive, meaning that it does not use motors or sensors, but instead creates a force on a cable that is a function of the displacement of the cable. This thesis details the design of the actuator and the selection of an appropriate polymer for use with the actuator. To determine the best polymer for this application, tests were conducted on nine polymers to ind their average Young's modulus and their hysteresis. A 90A abrasion-resistant polyurethane rubber belt was used in the final design due to its high modulus and low hysteresis. The final actuator design was tested in an Instron machine to validate its performance. During testing, the actuator provided 720N in extension and 530N in retraction, which are roughly 112% and 83% of the torque required to lift a human arm, respectively. / Master of Science / The development of industry increases productivity, and brings convenience to people’s life, but in the meantime it also increases work-related illnesses. Based on such condition, mechanical devices such as exoskeletons can be applied to support arms of wearer to perform tasks for longer durations and with less effort. In this thesis, we present a wearable actuator that contains pulleys and polymer belts. With rather light weight and small size, the actuator is located on the waist of wearer, and connected to the arm exoskeleton by cable. As the arm moves, the polymer belts within the actuator will be stretched and counteract the effects of movements. All in all, the design of the actuator must be portable, light-weight and with simple design that can be sufficient to meet actual requirements.

Máquinas manuais são utilizadas em diversos processos, como na usinagem mecânica. Apesar da existência de máquinas automatizadas, com boa precisão e conformidade, as máquinas manuais de usinagem possuem baixo custo inicial e alta flexibilidade de produção, sendo empregadas para produção de lotes pequenos ou peças únicas, como protótipos ou peças empregadas em pesquisas científicas. O operador humano possui mais flexibilidade que qualquer sistema automatizado por ter a capacidade de tomar decisões. O posicionamento da ferramenta de usinagem através de uma mesa linear com parafuso e porca, acionada manualmente com um manípulo, exige perícia do operador e impacta no custo final das peças produzidas. Um dispositivo robótico acoplado ao mecanismo de posicionamento poderia trabalhar em cooperação com o operador humano, sendo utilizado como um recurso optativo para auxiliá-lo na tarefa de posicionamento. Atuadores passivos do tipo freio são seguros para a manipulação humana direta e naturalmente estáveis ao manter uma posição estática, além de baratos e simples. Sendo controlado por computador e com a posição desejada facilmente programável, o freio eliminaria a preocupação do operador com o posicionamento crítico, permitindo concentrar-se em outros detalhes do trabalho de usinagem ao delegar a tarefa de posicionamento ao freio. Literatura ou índices de desempenho escassos e iniciais foram encontrados sobre a utilização de freios neste contexto. Desta forma, este trabalho estuda os mecanismos típicos de máquinas manuais de usinagem e de freios por atrito, propondo então algoritmos de controle e avaliando seu desempenho. Desenvolveu-se dois tipos de controladores para lidar com as fortes não linearidades do atrito e fatores estocásticos do mesmo: um primeiro que utiliza pré-alimentação de um modelo do atuador e um segundo que tenta diminuir a influência de perturbações no posicionamento final diminuindo a velocidade do sistema nas imediações da posição desejada de frenagem. Um protótipo foi montado e permitiu avaliar experimentalmente os algoritmos, que apresentaram bons índices de desempenho que confirmam seu potencial de utilização, baseados em trabalhos anteriores e normas técnicas de tolerâncias gerais. / Manual machines are those with minimum or non-existent automation, being employed in many processes, like in the mechanical machining, where the operator have the task to position a machining tool to manufacture pieces. Despite the existence of automated machines, with good precision and production regularity in its produced pieces, the manual machines has low initial cost and high production flexibility, being used for the production of small or unique batches, like prototypes or pieces for scientific research. The human operator has greater flexibility than any automated system as it has the ability to make decisions. The positioning of the machining tool, thru a linear work table with screw and nut, manually operated by a hand wheel, requires operator skills which impacts the final cost of the manufactured pieces. A robotic device coupled to the positioning mechanism would work in cooperation with the human operator, being used as a resource to help with the task of positioning. Passive actuators, like brakes, are safe for human direct manipulation and naturally stable to maintain a position, despite being simple and cheap. Being computer-controlled, with the desired position easily programmable, the brake would eliminate the operators worry with the positioning task, leaving it to the brake. This work studies typical machine mechanisms of manual machines and friction brakes, leading to the development and evaluation of control algorithms. Two main types of feedback controllers were developed to deal with the brakes hard nonlinearities of friction and stochastic factors: one that uses a feedforward model to compensate for modeled disturbances and a second that tries to lower the disturbances influence by lowering the velocity nearby the desired position. A prototype were built and allowed to experimentally evaluate the proposed algorithms, which presented good performance in relation to early works and tolerance standards.

Research within the field of human motion assistive device development, with the purpose of reducing the metabolic cost of daily activities, is seeing the benefits of the exclusive use of passive actuators to store and release energy during the gait cycle. Designs of novel exoskeletons at the University of Ottawa implement the Pneumatic Artificial Muscle (PAM) as the primary method of nonlinear, passive actuation. The PAM is proven as a superior actuator for these devices when compared to the linear mechanical springs used by other researchers. There are, however, challenges regarding PAM pressure loss and the limitation of PAM elongation that have been identified. This thesis aims to develop a hyperelastic tubular soft composite that replicates the distinctive mechanical behaviour of the PAM without the need for internal pressurization. The final soft composite solution was achieved by impregnating a prefabricated polyethylene terephthalate braided sleeve, held at a high initial fibre angle, with a silicone prepolymer. A comprehensive experimental evaluation was performed on numerous prototypes for a variety of customizable design parameters including: initial fibre angle, silicone stiffness, and braided sleeve style. Moreover, two separate analytical models were formulated based on incompressible finite elasticity theory using either a structural model of Holzapfel’s type, or a phenomenological model of Fung’s type. Both models were in good agreement with the experimental data that were collected through a modified extension-inflation test. This research has successfully developed, tested, and validated an innovative soft composite that can achieve specific mechanical properties, such as contraction distance and nonlinear stiffness, for optimal use in human motion assistive devices.

Máquinas manuais são utilizadas em diversos processos, como na usinagem mecânica. Apesar da existência de máquinas automatizadas, com boa precisão e conformidade, as máquinas manuais de usinagem possuem baixo custo inicial e alta flexibilidade de produção, sendo empregadas para produção de lotes pequenos ou peças únicas, como protótipos ou peças empregadas em pesquisas científicas. O operador humano possui mais flexibilidade que qualquer sistema automatizado por ter a capacidade de tomar decisões. O posicionamento da ferramenta de usinagem através de uma mesa linear com parafuso e porca, acionada manualmente com um manípulo, exige perícia do operador e impacta no custo final das peças produzidas. Um dispositivo robótico acoplado ao mecanismo de posicionamento poderia trabalhar em cooperação com o operador humano, sendo utilizado como um recurso optativo para auxiliá-lo na tarefa de posicionamento. Atuadores passivos do tipo freio são seguros para a manipulação humana direta e naturalmente estáveis ao manter uma posição estática, além de baratos e simples. Sendo controlado por computador e com a posição desejada facilmente programável, o freio eliminaria a preocupação do operador com o posicionamento crítico, permitindo concentrar-se em outros detalhes do trabalho de usinagem ao delegar a tarefa de posicionamento ao freio. Literatura ou índices de desempenho escassos e iniciais foram encontrados sobre a utilização de freios neste contexto. Desta forma, este trabalho estuda os mecanismos típicos de máquinas manuais de usinagem e de freios por atrito, propondo então algoritmos de controle e avaliando seu desempenho. Desenvolveu-se dois tipos de controladores para lidar com as fortes não linearidades do atrito e fatores estocásticos do mesmo: um primeiro que utiliza pré-alimentação de um modelo do atuador e um segundo que tenta diminuir a influência de perturbações no posicionamento final diminuindo a velocidade do sistema nas imediações da posição desejada de frenagem. Um protótipo foi montado e permitiu avaliar experimentalmente os algoritmos, que apresentaram bons índices de desempenho que confirmam seu potencial de utilização, baseados em trabalhos anteriores e normas técnicas de tolerâncias gerais. / Manual machines are those with minimum or non-existent automation, being employed in many processes, like in the mechanical machining, where the operator have the task to position a machining tool to manufacture pieces. Despite the existence of automated machines, with good precision and production regularity in its produced pieces, the manual machines has low initial cost and high production flexibility, being used for the production of small or unique batches, like prototypes or pieces for scientific research. The human operator has greater flexibility than any automated system as it has the ability to make decisions. The positioning of the machining tool, thru a linear work table with screw and nut, manually operated by a hand wheel, requires operator skills which impacts the final cost of the manufactured pieces. A robotic device coupled to the positioning mechanism would work in cooperation with the human operator, being used as a resource to help with the task of positioning. Passive actuators, like brakes, are safe for human direct manipulation and naturally stable to maintain a position, despite being simple and cheap. Being computer-controlled, with the desired position easily programmable, the brake would eliminate the operators worry with the positioning task, leaving it to the brake. This work studies typical machine mechanisms of manual machines and friction brakes, leading to the development and evaluation of control algorithms. Two main types of feedback controllers were developed to deal with the brakes hard nonlinearities of friction and stochastic factors: one that uses a feedforward model to compensate for modeled disturbances and a second that tries to lower the disturbances influence by lowering the velocity nearby the desired position. A prototype were built and allowed to experimentally evaluate the proposed algorithms, which presented good performance in relation to early works and tolerance standards.

The implant surgery replaces missing tooth to regain functionality and look of the normal tooth after dental operation. Improper placement of implant increases recuperation periods and reduces functionality. The aim of this thesis is to design a passive haptic robotic arm to guide dentist during the implant surgery. In this thesis, the optimum design of the 6R passive haptic robotic arm is achieved. The methodology used in optimization problem involves minimization of end-effector side parasitic forces/torques while maximizing transparency of the haptic device. The transparency of haptic device is defined as realism of forces generated by device in real world compared to forces in virtual world. The multivariable objective function including dynamic equations of 6R robotic arm is derived and the constraints are determined using kinematic equations. The optimization problem is solved using SQP and GA. The link lengths and other relevant parameters along with the location of tool path are optimized. The end-effector parasitic torques/forces are significantly minimized. The results of two optimization techniques have proven to be nearly the same, thus a global optimum solution has been found in the search space. Main contribution of this study is to take spatial nonlinear dynamics into consideration to reduce parasitic torques. Also, a mechanical brake is designed as a passive actuator. The mechanical brake includes a cone based braking system actuated by DC motor. Three different prototypes are manufactured to test performance of the mechanical brake. The final design indicates that the mechanical brake can be used as passive actuators.