With the growing popularity of Human–Robot Interactions, a series of robotic assistive devices have been created over the last decades. However, due to the lack of easily integrable resources, the development of these custom made devices turns out to be long and expensive. Therefore, the SMARCOS, a novel off-the-shelf Smart Variable Stiffness Actuator for human-centered robotic applications is proposed. This modular actuator combines compliant elements and sensors as well as low-level controller and high-bandwidth communication. The characterisation of the actuator is presented in our new manuscript published in the special issue of

 Advanced Robots: Design, Control and Application

Followed by two use-cases wherein the benefits of such technology can be truly exploited. The actuator provides a lightweight design that can serve as the building blocks to facilitate the development of robotic applications.

The article can be accessed following the link:

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0825/10/11/289

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