A long-lasting goal of robotics research is to operate robots safely, while achieving high performance which often involves fast motions. Traditional motor-driven systems frequently struggle to balance these competing demands. Addressing this trade-off is crucial for advancing fields such as manufacturing and healthcare, where seamless collaboration between robots and humans is essential. We introduce a four degree-of-freedom (DoF) tendon-driven robot arm, powered by pneumatic artificial muscles (PAMs), to tackle this challenge. Our new design features low friction, passive compliance, and inherent impact resilience, enabling rapid, precise, high-force, and safe interactions during dynamic tasks. In addition to fostering safer human-robot collaboration, the inherent safety properties are particularly beneficial for reinforcement learning, where the robot's ability to explore dynamic motions without causing self-damage is crucial. We validate our robotic arm through various experiments, including long-term dynamic motions, impact resilience tests, and assessments of its ease of control. On a challenging dynamic table tennis task, we further demonstrate our robot's capabilities in rapid and precise movements. By showcasing our new design's potential, we aim to inspire further research on robotic systems that balance high performance and safety in diverse tasks. Our open-source hardware design, software, and a large dataset of diverse robot motions can be found at https://webdav.tuebingen.mpg.de/pamy2/.

翻译：机器人研究的长期目标是实现安全操作的同时，达到通常涉及快速运动的高性能表现。传统电机驱动系统往往难以平衡这些相互矛盾的需求。解决这一权衡问题对推进制造和医疗等领域至关重要，因为这些领域需要机器人与人之间的无缝协作。我们提出了一种由气动人工肌肉（PAMs）驱动的四自由度（DoF）腱驱动机械臂，以应对这一挑战。我们的新设计具有低摩擦、被动柔顺性和固有的抗冲击能力，能够在动态任务中实现快速、精确、高力和安全交互。除了促进更安全的人机协作外，其固有的安全特性尤其有利于强化学习——因为机器人自主探索动态运动而不造成自损的能力至关重要。我们通过多项实验验证了该机械臂，包括长期动态运动、抗冲击测试以及易控性评估。在具有挑战性的动态乒乓球任务中，我们进一步展示了机器人在快速和精确运动方面的能力。通过展示新设计的潜力，我们旨在激发更多关于平衡高性能与安全性的机器人系统的研究。我们的开源硬件设计、软件以及包含多样化机器人运动的大型数据集可通过 https://webdav.tuebingen.mpg.de/pamy2/ 获取。