Raising the stiffness of manipulators with lightweight links

In this paper new approaches to manipulator mechanism design are presented, based on force unloading of the links, which enables to realize lightweight terminal organs with long links, having in operation, minimal static and dynamic errors, caused by elastic deformations of these links. As compared with traditional schemes, the posed task is solved by means of multiple raising of the flexural stiffness of the links, using special unloading devices with electrohydraulic drives, which are negligibly augmenting the masses and dimensions of the links.