Exoskeleton robots are wearable augmentative devices that enhance the physical capabilities of their human wearers. Offering the ability to combine human intelligence and control with the strength and durability of a robot, they can be used for gait rehabilitation or locomotion assistance, offering many applications in industry, medicine, and more.1
However, developing practical and economically viable exoskeleton robots has proven to be an extreme technical challenge. Despite being actively researched since the 1990s, only now – with the aid of modern technology – are the first practical applications of robotic exoskeletons starting to emerge.
Of all the components that go into an exoskeleton robot, servo drives are perhaps the most significant: If motors are the muscles of a powered exoskeleton, then servo drives are the brain. As such, the servo drive is the electronic component responsible for an application’s motion. A servo drive is fed a command signal for position, velocity, or current by means of a feedback loop. It then adjusts the voltage, and current applied to the servomotor accordingly. The precision, power, and efficiency of a robotics system are highly dependable on this subcircuit.