Experimental verification of high redundancy actuation

This paper demonstrates a new method of providing fault tolerant actuators for high-integrity and safety-critical applications. The High Redundancy Actuator (HRA) uses a large number of small actuation elements to make up a single actuator. It provides superior reliability and efficiency over current technology, by configuring and controlling the elements so that faults are inherently accommodated. A laboratory demonstrator has been created using 16 elements in a 4×4 series-parallel configuration to verify the concept experimentally. The design and the results of the experiment are presented, as well as lessons learned for future applications.