Mechanical design of a light weight and high stiffness arm for humanoids

This paper presents the performance enhanced humanoid robot BHR-03, which is characterized by its light weight construction, a modular, multi-sensory joint design with brushless motors and an electronics architecture using decentralized joint controllers. In the previous humanoid robots we developed we mainly focus on the biped walking control, path plan and high stiffness design of the limb. In the current project, we will focus on the object manipulation of the arm, the arm will move fast and with big end loads. So the weight and stiffness of the arm are the key factors. Modular design, dynamic simulation, finite element analysis were introduced to design it a light weight, high stiffness and compact arm. The method was proved to be useful in the design of new arm. And also the methods were used to develop the whole humanoid, the whole humanoid is about 55 kg weight, and the arm is less than 4 kg.