Evolution of Mast-type Statically Determinate Truss into Flexible Robot Arm

为了开发未来的机械臂系统，研究了一种静定桁架的演化过程，建立了其运动学、静力学和动力学，并进行了运动规划和原型设计。该概念是基于这样一种思想，即如果每个组件都设计成可以改变其长度的，那么桁架就可以转化为多自由度的柔性臂系统。如果元件长度控制得当，该系统可以作为具有与可变元件数量相同的自由度的机械臂使用。该设计的特点是：机械臂具有：1)高自由度，比传统机械臂灵活得多；2)对重物的搬运能力；3)与多连杆机械臂相比，每自由度结构极其简单；4)装载和展开能力。研究主要集中在：1)系统运动学、静力学和动力学基本理论的建立和响应的计算机仿真；2)运动的规划和优化，以适当地利用高自由度；3)原型的设计，包括关节和作动器等特殊子系统。这些基础研究将有助于开发下一代的新系统。

In order to develop a future system of robot arm, the evolution of a mast-type truss of statically determinate was studied to establish its kinematics, statics and dynamics as well as the motion planning and the design of a prototype. The concept is based on the idea the truss can be transformed to the flexible arm system of multi-degrees of freedom (DOF) if each component is designed to change its length.If the length of components if properly controled, the system can be utilized as a robot arm having as many DOF as the number of variable components. The features of this idea are as follows:The arm has, 1) the high DOF which result in much more flexible than the conventional arm, 2) the handling capacity for materials with heavy weight,3) the extremely simple structure per DOF compared with the multi-link arm, and4) the stowed and deployable capacity.The research is mainly concentrated into, 1) the establishment of the fundamental theory concerning the kinematics, statics and dynamics of the system and the computer simulation of the response, 2) the planning and the optimization of the motion to make use appropriately of high DOF, and 3) the design of the prototype including special subsystems such the joint and the actuater. These basic studies will contribute to develop the new system of the next generation.