Jake Abbott
University of Utah, UT·Engineering
Robotic legs, including powered prostheses, exoskeletons and walking robots, spend a lot of energy just holding a position and swinging back and forth. Animals do this more efficiently by storing energy in springy tissues.
- Fields
Engineering
Biomedical Engineering
- Topics
robotics
legged robots
actuators
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Dec 2026
What they work on
- Characterize the natural and motor-driven dynamics of the magnetic cogging parallel-elastic actuator (MC-PEA), a motor paired with magnetic springs that hold stable positions at no energy cost, and develop efficient control methods.
- Implement motion patterns borrowed from biology, including impedance control, point-to-point sub-movements and multi-mode oscillations, on a two-link robotic leg with MC-PEAs at the hip and knee.
- Develop fast-switching energy-recovery circuits that reclaim energy during dynamic leg movements, and explore MC-PEA benefits in a powered ankle prosthesis.
- Determine optimal designs of the magnetic cogging-torque element across a wide range of step sizes, and share them with robot designers.
More about the research
This project explores a new motor design built for that kind of efficiency, called the magnetic cogging parallel-elastic actuator (MC-PEA). An actuator is the part that moves a joint. In the MC-PEA, an electric motor works alongside a passive magnetic cogging-torque element (CTE), which acts like a set of strong magnetic springs. The CTE creates a series of built-in stable positions. Holding a static load at one of these positions costs no motor energy. The motor only needs short bursts of energy to push the joint over to the next position. The design is proposed as an energy-saving alternative to the series-elastic actuator, which is today's standard choice.
Why it matters
More efficient actuators could let powered ankle prostheses, exoskeletons and legged robots, such as humanoids and quadrupeds, move longer on a battery charge. They could also help such robots interact safely with people. That would benefit amputees who use powered prostheses and engineers building walking machines. The project's shared optimal designs could give robot builders a practical alternative to series-elastic actuators.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Nathan Usevitch
Brigham Young University, UT·Engineering
Develop and experimentally test models of the energy a flywheel-powered jumping robot can store, based on flywheel shape, size, material, motor power, surrounding fluid and payload.
Tonya Stone
Mississippi State University, MS·Engineering
Design an elastic spring for an ankle foot prosthesis using machine learning-based optimization to determine the curvatures and contours that maximize energy return during walking.
Aaron Young
Georgia Institute of Technology, GA·Biomedical Engineering·Early-career
Compare personalized hip versus ankle exoskeleton assistance for improving walking on both legs after stroke, testing the hypothesis that hip assistance yields larger walking-speed gains because stroke survivors compensate at the hip for ankle weakness.
The school
University of Utah: 58 labs on PI Pages, $789M a year on research, 366 research doctorates a year.
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