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Minimally actuated serial robot

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 November 2017

Moshe P. Mann ,
Lior Damti ,
Gideon Tirosh  and
David Zarrouk
Moshe P. Mann
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Southern Israel
Lior Damti
Affiliation:
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Southern Israel
Gideon Tirosh
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Southern Israel
David Zarrouk*
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Southern Israel
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: zadavid@bgu.ac.il
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Summary

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In this paper, we propose a novel type of serial robot with minimal actuation. The robot is a serial rigid structure consisting of multiple links connected by passive joints and of movable actuators. The novelty of this robot is that the actuators travel over the links to a given joint and adjust the relative angle between the two adjacent links. The joints passively preserve their angles until one of the actuators moves them again. This actuation can be applied to any serial robot with two or more links. This unique configuration enables the robot to undergo the same wide range of motions typically associated with hyper-redundant robots but with much fewer actuators. The robot is modular and its size and geometry can be easily changed. We describe the robot's mechanical design and kinematics in detail and demonstrate its capabilities for obstacle avoidance with some simulated examples. In addition, we show how an experimental robot fitted with a single mobile actuator can maneuver through a confined space to reach its target.

Keywords

Hyper-redundant robotMinimal actuationMotion planningMobile actuator

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Robotica , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , March 2018 , pp. 408 - 426
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Footnotes

1

These authors contributed equally to this work.

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