Development of novel linear motion mechanism with compact three-staged transmission

To most of the walking robots or legged mobile vehicles, load on each leg changes greatly and frequently. On the other hand, fast moving speed of the lifted leg is also strongly expected. General solution with fixed ratio mechanism has the limitation of providing both large range load capability and moving speed. In this paper, we describe the development of a novel linear motion mechanism with compact lightweight transmission that provides high-speed low-speed and lock stage by practically using two 2K-H type planetary gears. After a full check on the mechanical design through geometric calculation and motion analysis, we examine the mechanical model´s dynamic performance with several experiments.