Applications of A Proprioceptive Actuator:3DoF Robotic Arm & Humanoid Upper Body Robot through Impedance Control

Background: Motivation and Evolution

Building upon my previous project, ‘A Low-Cost Modular 3D-Printed Proprioceptive Actuator for HRI,’ I developed a ‘3DoF Compliant Robotic Arm’ and a ‘Humanoid Upper Body Robot.’ Both systems consist of fully 3D-printed parts and feature proprioceptive sensing capabilities, compliance, impedance control, and a QDD design.

3DoF Compliant Robotic Arm

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Humanoid Upper Body Robot

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Conclusion

I built an integrated robotic system using my custom proprioceptive actuators and implemented impedance control, which allows the robot to react compliantly to external forces. Through this project, I demonstrated that my actuators are highly suitable for this robotic hardware platform. Although I have not yet implemented high-level controllers (such as Model Predictive Control or Reinforcement Learning), building this hardware from scratch was a significant milestone. It has accelerated my studies and provided a clear direction for my future projects.

Moving forward, I plan to use this platform to design vision-based controllers, MPC, and Reinforcement Learning models. This hardware will serve as a solid foundation for my extensive study of high-level control systems.