Designing a biomimetic model of non-linear elastic safety mechanism for collaborative robots

Making collaborative robots physically interact with human requires to solve some technical issues of safety. This work presents a new methodological approach to define a mechanical model of force-deformation response for biologically inspired safety mechanisms. A nonlinear Hunt-Crossley based parametric model is proposed; its parameters are designed by an optimal approach balancing safety criteria with a metrological performance criterion. A particular attention is paid on the safety bounds so that they are not overly conservatives. The resulting optimal parameters show an excellent minimization of the objective function while ensuring the safety conditions.