DLR Robots - Advanced Compliance

DLR, the German aerospace research agency, has developed some very advanced android systems. Foremost among their development requirements are that the robotics systems are compliant.

Robotics pioneer Rodney Brooks has written and studied about compliant robotics.  In Flesh and Machines: How Robots Will Change Us he goes over many of the compliant research undertaken with his robot, 'Cog.'   Brooks' student, Adam Kumpf wrote Explorations in Low-Cost Compliant Robotics, where many of the requirements of robotic compliance are explored.

Cog, Rodney Brooks' compliant robot

Compliance is a measure of the amount in angle or distance that a robot axis will move when a force is applied to it. Because of compliance when a robot goes to a position carrying its maximum payload it will be at a position slightly lower than when it is carrying no payload. Compliance can also be responsible for overshoot when carrying high payloads in which case acceleration would need to be reduced.

Furthermore compliance lets the robot actually absorb deflecting blows even in the middle of a sophisticated move on its own, not so that you can necessarily hit a robot, but so that if a human blunders into a robot's work area, its powerful motors won't just ignore the collision and mash the fragile human flesh that's in its way. For the future when humans and robots will be working and interacting side-by-side to a much higher degree the safety needs of compliant robots are paramount.

Compliant robot hand - DLR

DLR's robots display that genuine worker androids are actually possible, technically and perhaps affordably, right now for specialist purposes.

Probably the most famous DLR robot the two-armed "humanoid" robot torso Justin, who was from the Institute for Robotics and Mechatronics at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) develops. JUSTIN has two arms, two hands, chest and head with 3-D sensors and represents a new generation of robots that interact with the people who react sensitively to touch and manipulate two-handed objects skillfully.

The videos below demonstrate some of the capabilities of the DLR robots: