Model based control of series elastic actuators

This contribution presents a comprehensible model based approach of a control structure to control the output force of series elastic actuators. The controller is based on a linear model of the actuator, which can be reduced to a PT
₂
element if a disturbance compensator is included. This allows for a straightforward design of a state space controller and an intuitive choice of the controller parameters. An actuator design is presented and the required system parameters are identified. The performance of the control structure is proven by experiment.