Coupled tendon-driven multijoint manipulator

A coupled tendon-driven manipulator called the CT arm is introduced, an its control is discussed. The CT arm has a specific tendon traction force transmission mechanism in which a pair of tendons for driving a joint are pulled from base actuators via pulleys mounted on the base-side joints. The mechanism makes the most of the coupled drive function of the tendon traction forces and thus can exhibit enormous payload capability. The CT arm is solidly structured and can be inexpensively manufactured because of its mechanical simplicity. A control algorithm which minimizes the square sum of the traction force of tendons while satisfying given restrictions is introduced. The validity of the control method is shown by computer simulation