Stackable 4-BAR Mechanisms and Their Robotic Applications

This paper proposes a new planar robotic manipulator using stackable 4-BAR mechanisms for various applications such as a manipulator of surgical robot and a manipulator of field robot. The proposed manipulator has an advantage that all driving actuators can be separated from the mechanical mechanism, in other words, we are able to separate all electrical components such as electrical actuators and wirings from mechanical linkage/joint components in the robotic manipulator. Thus the robotic manipulator including working joints and linkages can be manufactured using one or a few material(s) with light-weight and slim-size. Also, the proposed mechanism does not require the actuators to attach directly to driving joints and it can be independently controlled. In addition, we suggest the kinematic analysis of the proposed manipulator composed of input mechanisms, multiple 4-BAR mechanisms and output mechanisms. Finally, a variety of simulation results and a prototype are suggested to show the effectiveness of the stackable 4-BAR mechanisms.