Space robot. Proposal of Torque Unit Manipulator.

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a new design concept of manipulator which is called “Torque-Unit Manipulator (TUM) ”. The Torque-Unit Manipulator has an open-loop kinematic chain as the typical traditional manipulators do, however each joint of which has one degree of freedom free joint. An actuator called “torque unit” is mounted on an arbitrary place of the link. The merit of the TUM would be an easy maintenance. In this paper, the dynamic model and the position-controllability of the N degree-of-freedom general TUM are shown in detail. A control system is designed for the TUM and its effectiveness is shown by a simple simulation.