• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.5 no.8
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• pp.977-989
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• 1999

The purpose of this study is to analyze how the human body having more muscles than its degree-of-freedom modulates an effective stiffness using redundant actuation, and to apply this concept to the design and control of advanced machines which requires adaptable spring. To investigate the adaptable stiffness phenomenon due to redundant actuation in the human body, this paper derives a general stiffness model of the Human body. In particular, for a planar 1 DOF human arm model, a planar 2 DOF human arm model, a spherical 3 DOF shoulder model, a 4 DOF human arm model, and a 7 DOF human arm model, the required nonlinear geometry ad the number of required actuator for successful modulation of the effective stiffness are analyzed along with a load distribution method for modulation of the required stiffness of such systems. Secondly, the concept of motion frequency modulation is introduced to show the usefulness of adaptive stiffness modulation. The motion frequency modulation represents a control of stiffness and / or inertia properties of systems. To show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, simulations are performed for 2 DOF anthropomorphic robot.