Experimental Evaluation of the Static Characteristics of Multi-Degree-of-Freedom Spherical Actuators

Abstract

Multi-degree-of-freedom (multi-DOF) actuators have been developed to be applied in the fields of robotics and industrial machinery. In general, an actuating system with several-DOF is composed of single-DOF motors, which results in large, heavy, and complicated structures. Therefore, multi-DOF actuators are expected to solve these problems, and various actuators have been studied. Unlike single-DOF motors, the multi-DOF actuators can generate torque in various directions at different positions. Due to this, it is difficult to measure the static torque characteristics. In this paper, a measuring method of the torque constant is proposed in order to measure the static torque characteristics. This method can be used to evaluate the static torque characteristics over an entire movable range by measuring only a limited number of points. Finally, the effectiveness of this method is discussed.