Synthesis of tendon-driven manipulators with high fault tolerance

The purpose of this work is the realization of a methodology for synthesizing tendon-driven manipulators with high fault tolerance. Characteristics of tendon-driven manipulators are briefly discussed. Criteria for the tendon-driven manipulators to have positive tension are then established. Constraints for such manipulator are subsequently derived from the null space of the structure matrix. With these constraints, manipulators can remain controllable when one of the tendons is failed to function. Finally, a procedure for determining the structure matrix that satisfies the constraints is developed via geometric method.