An electrorheological fluid damper for robots

A new electrorheological fluid damper has been developed to control the elastic vibrations of robotic mechanisms. The damper is capable of providing a continuously variable damping torque in response to an electric field. In the absence of an electric field the device acts like a normal fluid damper that produces a viscous damping torque. When the field is energized the device develops a Coulomb damping torque that is much greater then that produced by conventional viscous damping. The influence of model parameters on the damping torques is analyzed in this paper. Simulation results show that this damper can cause joint vibrations to quickly decay.