The 20-DOF miniature humanoid MH-2: A wearable communication system

Abstract

The 20-DOF miniature humanoid “MH-2” designed as a wearable telecommunicator, is a personal telerobot system. An operator can communicate with remote people through the robot. The robot acts as an avatar of the operator. To date, four prototypes of the wearable telecommunicator T1, T2, T3 and MH-1, have been developed as research platforms. MH-1 is also a miniature humanoid robot with 11-DOF for mutual telexistence. Although human-like appearance might be important for such communication systems, it is unable to achieve sophisticated gestures due to the lack of both wrist and body motions. In this paper, to tackle this problem, a 3-DOF parallel wire mechanism with novel wire arrangement for the wrist is introduced, while 3-DOF body motions are also adopted. Consequently, a 20-DOF miniature humanoid with dual 7-DOF arms has been designed and developed. Details of the concept and design are discussed, while fundamental experiments with a developed 7-DOF arm are also executed to confirm the mechanical properties.