Title: Tip force dependence on placed bi-articular motor using planetary gear

Authors: Atsushi Umemura; Toshimasa Haneyoshi

Addresses: Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, National University Corporation Kitami Institute of Technology, 165 Koen-cho, Kitami City, Hokkaido, Japan ' Division of Electronic and Mechanical Engineering, Tokyo Denki University, Ishizaka, Hatoyama, Hiki-gun, Saitama, Japan

Abstract: In conventional robot arms, each joint is controlled by one motor. The human upper extremities can be classified into three pairs of antagonistic muscles. Kumamoto et al. (1994) recently demonstrated the coordinate model of the three pairs of antagonistic muscles for controlling the output force direction at the arm end. The human force output of three pairs of antagonistic muscles is simulated by three electric rotary motors. This paper presents three pairs of antagonistic muscles by three electric rotary motors and a bi-article motor with a planetary gear. The tip force varies with the location of bi-article motor. Using a transmitter gear, not only the normally driven arm with a bi-article motor in link 1 but also the remotely driven arm with a bi-article motor in the base frame can imitate force of the human arm tip. The experimental results verified that our system is resembles human muscles.

Keywords: two link robots; robot arms; bi-article muscles; planetary gears; tip force dependence; human force output; antagonistic muscles; simulation; electric rotary motors; robot control.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMA.2013.052616

International Journal of Mechatronics and Automation, 2013 Vol.3 No.1, pp.16 - 24

Received: 03 Apr 2012
Accepted: 02 Sep 2012
Published online: 30 Apr 2014 *

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