A Highly-Geared Haptic Actuator using 3D Printed Magnetorheological Clutches

A Highly-Geared Haptic Actuator using 3D Printed Magnetorheological Clutches | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article A Highly-Geared Haptic Actuator using 3D Printed Magnetorheological Clutches Pierre Lhommeau, Jean-Sébastien Plante This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7694970/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 10 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Advanced robotic systems such as humanoid robots need actuators with high torque density but yet, with good haptic abilities, in order to interact transparently with people. Combining these two requirements presents an important challenge for conventional gearmotors due to a gearing design conflict where gearing increases torque density but only at the cost of reduced haptic performance. Recent research suggests that magnetorheological (MR) actuators have the potential to greatly reduce the gearing design conflict by introducing a small fluidic clutch between the “gear” and the “motor” which allows maintaining excellent haptic performance at high gearing. Fully extracting the benefits of MR actuators requires pushing gearing ratios above 100:1 in combination with miniature low friction and inertia clutches which presents serious manufacturing challenges. This paper presents a manufacturing solution for such miniature, low friction and inertia, 3D printed MR clutch design and integration in an actuator with 120:1 gearing ratio. An extensive experimental characterisation is conducted on a fully-functional actuator showing excellent backdrivability and frequency response even with such high gearing levels thus opening the door to a future generation of torque-dense, but yet haptic robot actuators. Additive Manufacturing Magnetorheological Clutches Highly-geared Actuator Backdrivability Haptic Actuator Design Full Text Additional Declarations Competing interest reported. Funding This work was financially supported by NSERC Discovery Grant with Acceleration Supplement, the Canada Research Chair Program, Mitacs Accelerate and CoRoM program. Competing interests Pr. Jean-Sebastien Plante is the Chief Technology Officer of Exonetik Inc. and Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Université de Sherbrooke. Supplementary Files ActuatorDemonstration.mp4 HandBackdrivabilityRatio60.png Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 05 Nov, 2025 Reviews received at journal 24 Oct, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 19 Oct, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 17 Oct, 2025 Reviews received at journal 15 Oct, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 14 Oct, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 08 Oct, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 26 Sep, 2025 Submission checks completed at journal 26 Sep, 2025 First submitted to journal 23 Sep, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7694970","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":531881641,"identity":"f584eeb9-1156-44c6-83b1-326c498aabf8","order_by":0,"name":"Pierre 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Funding\nThis work was financially supported by NSERC Discovery Grant with Acceleration Supplement, the Canada Research Chair Program, Mitacs Accelerate and CoRoM program.\n\nCompeting interests\nPr. Jean-Sebastien Plante is the Chief Technology Officer of Exonetik Inc. and Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Université de Sherbrooke.","formattedTitle":"A Highly-Geared Haptic Actuator using 3D Printed Magnetorheological Clutches","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"discover-robotics","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"Learn more about [Discover Robotics](https://link.springer.com/journal/44430)","snPcode":"44430","submissionUrl":"https://submission.springernature.com/new-submission/44430/3","title":"Discover Robotics","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Unsupported Journal","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Additive Manufacturing, Magnetorheological Clutches, Highly-geared Actuator, Backdrivability, Haptic, Actuator Design","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7694970/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7694970/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eAdvanced robotic systems such as humanoid robots need actuators with high torque density but yet, with good haptic abilities, in order to interact transparently with people. Combining these two requirements presents an important challenge for conventional gearmotors due to a gearing design conflict where gearing increases torque density but only at the cost of reduced haptic performance. Recent research suggests that magnetorheological (MR) actuators have the potential to greatly reduce the gearing design conflict by introducing a small fluidic clutch between the \u0026ldquo;gear\u0026rdquo; and the \u0026ldquo;motor\u0026rdquo; which allows maintaining excellent haptic performance at high gearing. Fully extracting the benefits of MR actuators requires pushing gearing ratios above 100:1 in combination with miniature low friction and inertia clutches which presents serious manufacturing challenges. This paper presents a manufacturing solution for such miniature, low friction and inertia, 3D printed MR clutch design and integration in an actuator with 120:1 gearing ratio. An extensive experimental characterisation is conducted on a fully-functional actuator showing excellent backdrivability and frequency response even with such high gearing levels thus opening the door to a future generation of torque-dense, but yet haptic robot actuators.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"A Highly-Geared Haptic Actuator using 3D Printed Magnetorheological Clutches","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-10-21 07:25:12","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7694970/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"decision","content":"Revision requested","date":"2025-11-05T08:25:15+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2025-10-25T01:50:46+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"142820724155484053884320825021605322113","date":"2025-10-19T13:57:14+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"51356261214400030874292428583456462281","date":"2025-10-17T09:09:29+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2025-10-15T06:09:46+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"292030092544928104461002717256820030829","date":"2025-10-14T05:43:02+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewersInvited","content":"","date":"2025-10-08T16:32:06+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2025-09-26T10:14:05+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"checksComplete","content":"","date":"2025-09-26T10:12:32+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"Discover Robotics","date":"2025-09-23T13:25:05+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"discover-robotics","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"Learn more about [Discover Robotics](https://link.springer.com/journal/44430)","snPcode":"44430","submissionUrl":"https://submission.springernature.com/new-submission/44430/3","title":"Discover Robotics","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Unsupported Journal","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"3bda5be0-3c2a-40da-ae6b-25b00cad0d3b","owner":[],"postedDate":"October 21st, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"under-review","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-02-10T07:25:18+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-10-21 07:25:12","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-7694970","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-7694970","identity":"rs-7694970","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}