Design of a redundantly actuated leg mechanism

Abstract

In a humanoid robot system, many human-body motions such as walking, running and jumping require large power. To achieve a high power-to-weight ratio, this paper proposes a new design of the leg mechanism using parallel kinematic chains involving redundant actuators. The kinematics for the leg mechanism is derived and a kinematic index to measure force transmission ratio are introduced. It is demonstrated through simulation that incorporation of redundant actuator into the leg mechanism enhances the power of the mechanism approximately 4 times of the minimum actuation. The leg mechanism is developed and has been integrated into the biomimetic system for the purpose of payload enhancement.