Design and Development of a Universal Actuator Characterization Test Station for Wearable Robotics
Ryan J. Hartnett
School of Engineering
Faculty Supervisor: David Quintero
We present work to advance controls research for actuator characterization with the development of a benchtop testing platform to improve actuator implementation that drive rehabilitative robotic exoskeletons. When developing actuators to assist humans with rehabilitation and daily activities we must be certain they perform as expected to prevent injury. To achieve our aims we developed a Universal Actuator Test Station to perform static and dynamic tests to assess custom actuators built at San Francisco State University. In this platform debut, we obtain actuator performance parameters from a metal planetary gearbox to validate our testing capability. We found the developed test station can produce quality data to match that of similar test stations in the literature. We captured angular velocity at the gearbox output within the expected root mean squared error and produced a viable step response based on a desired torque. To push the field of controls in rehabilitative exoskeleton technology we need the proper tools to characterize prototypes. This work establishes a feasible framework for benchtop testing of actuation systems. We aim to leverage actuator dynamics to utilize the full potential of motors by mapping their performance and expanding the capabilities of our custom assistive rehabilitative devices.