Patent ID: 8525460

Claim:
A series elastic actuator architecture for providing force control for a series elastic actuator that actuates a load, said architecture comprising: a spring coupled to the load; a motor including a motor shaft and a gear box, said motor shaft being coupled to the spring; a first position sensor provided at an output of the gear box of the motor, said first sensor measuring the orientation of the motor shaft; a second position sensor provided at an opposite end of the spring and measuring the orientation of the load; an embedded processor provided proximate the motor and receiving sensor position signals from the first and second sensors, said embedded processor calculating the actual torque of the spring based on the spring rate and the difference between the orientation of the motor shaft and the orientation of the load; and a remote controller providing a reference torque signal to the embedded processor, said embedded processor determining the difference between the reference torque and the actual torque on the spring and controlling the position of the motor shaft so that the reference torque and the actual torque are the same.