I would like to build a 70cm articulated robotic arm (not a scara one) that can lift between 10kg and 15kg (10kg would be awesome already, this payload includes the weight of the arm+gripper) and moves at 1 m/s (dreaming again :)). The goal is to make it similar to an human arm since I want to control it "remotely", so the joint should not be able to rotate more than my arm ^^
So I know that I cannot uses servos available (like the overpriced dynamixel ones..) with that payload. I also already excluded common linear actuators and less common ones like the pneumatic actuators (because of latency).
From what I read arms like the baxter ones uses elastic series actuators, so I guess that I should go that way, but there aren't a lot of details on how that works (getting a lot of 100x100 photos where you see nothing) and I have a lot of questions. The only thing I could understand is that it uses 2 motors and a spring.
Do they use brushed or brushless motors? DC motors or steppers ? I read that steppers aren't that good to handle collisions and have difficulties when used at their limits.
Also, how is the spring mounted on the motor ?
To sum up, I'm collecting any experience, diagrams, intel, or documents that you have on that topic :)
PS : my budget can't exceed +/- 1500$ for that arm.