Two degree of freedom robotic manipulator constructed from rotary drives

摘要

A two degree-of-freedom robot manipulator is constructed from two rotary drives of prior invention. Each rotary drive consists of a relatively small diameter cylindrical driving member and a relatively larvae diameter cylindrical driven member coupled by a cable system. The driving member of rotary drive 2 is positioned with its axis of rotation coincident with the axis of rotation of the driven member of rotary drive 1. The driven member of drive 2 is rotatably mounted to the driven member of drive 1 to realize the required relative positioning of the driving and driven members of drive 2. The driving members of both rotary drives are mounted in a fixed reference frame. Coordinated control of the driving members allows two axis dynamic control of a tool apparatus mounted to the second driven member. This construction method extends the precision of the rotary drive to two degrees of freedom and obviates the apparatus required in other methods to transmit torques from the fixed reference frame to the second driven member.