FUTEK Advanced Sensor Technology, Inc. is proud to announce its recent sponsorship of the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) in the very first Cybathlon competition held in Zurich, Switzerland on Oct. 8, 2016.
The Cybathlon is an international competition that invites companies and universities to work side by side with disabled people in order to develop assistive devices. The IHMC team placed second overall in the Powered Exoskeleton Race winning the silver medal for that event. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the exoskeleton, IHMC chose Mark Daniel, who has sustained a spinal cord injury, to compete in five out of six possible tasks for the Powered Exoskeleton competition.
IHMC developed a new exoskeleton featuring a new actuator design called Mina v2 for the Cybathlon competition. This new design is unique in that it includes the addition of powered ankles, which allows the exoskeleton to be more stable and faster than previous versions.
Mina v2 incorporates FUTEK’s LCB200 Rod End Load Cell into all of its actuators. Peter Neuhaus, IHMC’s Senior Research Scientist explains, “The LCB200 load cell, from FUTEK, is used in each of our actuators to measure the torque that the actuator is applying. Measuring the torque is critical because we use the measured value in our feedback loop to control the current to the motor. Also, by precisely knowing the torque, the computer can make important decisions about how to control the exoskeleton. Integrating this load cell into the actuator turn a regular, position controllable, actuator into a high fidelity, torque controllable actuator.”
Futek
www.futek.com
Filed Under: Sensor Tips