A Second Torque Port for Series Elastic Actuators: Parallel-Integrated Design and Time-Scale Torque Allocation

2026-09-25

AI Summary

This study addresses the high-frequency torque attenuation and low-frequency friction dead zones inherent in the single-port architecture of conventional series elastic actuators by proposing a dual-port parallel integration design. A frameless direct-drive micromotor is introduced in parallel with the spring to establish a second torque port, replacing traditional filtering schemes with a time-scale-based torque allocation strategy supported by a closed-loop singular perturbation analysis framework. Under small-amplitude operating conditions, this approach significantly broadens the system tracking bandwidth and reduces residual joint torques exerted on the environment by an order of magnitude. Furthermore, it provides analytical actuator selection rules, effectively enhancing the dynamic performance of compliant actuation systems.

Abstract

A series elastic actuator has a single torque port and pays for it twice: the geared motor must swing its own reflected inertia through the spring, so the amplitude it delivers collapses as $ω^{-2}$ in the command frequency $ω$ once it saturates, while commands below the transmission's breakaway friction never arrive at all. This letter opens a second torque port on the load side, placing a frameless direct-drive micro motor in parallel with a fixed-stiffness spring -- a parallel-integrated SEA, or Pi-SEA, whose delivered torque is read from spring deflection and micro current without a sensor -- and dividing the commanded torque between the two channels by time scale rather than by filter design. The micro torque loop is the fast subsystem, which makes the closed loop singularly perturbed and turns the separation the channels need into a bound to check rather than a crossover to tune; a leaky mid-ranging integrator returns the steady load to the spring; and the amplitude ceiling, read backwards, becomes a closed-form sizing rule that matches spring, geared motor and micro motor to the amplitudes and frequencies an application asks for. Against SEAs, the Pi-SEA widens the tracked band at small amplitudes and lowers the residual the joint imposes on its environment, each by an order of magnitude.

Problem

• Series Elastic Actuator
• Torque Bandwidth
• Reflected Inertia
• Breakaway Friction
• Torque Tracking

Innovation

• Series Elastic Actuator
• Parallel-Integrated Design
• Time-Scale Torque Allocation
• Singular Perturbation
• Sensorless Torque Estimation