Experimental Validation of a Motor–SMA Hybrid Actuation for Lightweight Wearable Robot
Jeongae Bak, Kyungjun Choi, Hyunmok Jung, Hyunuk Seo, Daehyun Kim
Abstract
Conventional motor-driven wearable robots often suffer from increased weight and limited torque output. To address this issue, this study proposes a motor–SMA hybrid actuation approach that combines the advantages of electric motors and shape memory alloy (SMA) actuators. A dedicated testbed was developed to evaluate the proposed method under varying load conditions. Experimental results show that the SMA actuator provides additional assistive torque of approximately 3 N·m compared to motor-only operation, without significant increase in system weight. These results demonstrate the feasibility of hybrid actuation for achieving lightweight and high-performance wearable robotic systems.