Exploiting the slip behavior of friction based clutches for safer adjustable torque limiters

Torque limiters are a proven way to enhance the safety in robots. To further increase the safety, adjustable torque limits depending on the task and the joint configuration (joint angles, velocity, acceleration) would be preferable. Friction clutches can be used as adjustable torque limiters (ATL). In contact free motion the ATL can be set with torque limits higher than the required torque, thereby not influencing the position tracking performance. At an impact, the torque is intrinsically limited, enhancing the safety. Furthermore, depending on the implementation, friction clutches have another relevant property. They can have different torque limits for static and kinetic friction: When the static torque limit is exceeded (as it would be the case in an incidental contact situation), the clutch starts slipping, and the torque output automatically decreases, thereby reducing the forces in a quasi-static contact, as defined in ISO/TS 15066:2016. The current paper implements and profiles an ATL, which exhibits a kinetic torque limit of only 50.4% of the static torque limit at 10rpm. This ensures both an adjustable torque limit fitting to the task requirement and a lower but not zero torque after impact for enhanced safety. Impact experiments validate the safety benefits outlined above.