Kinematic Synthesis of a Tendon-Driven Robotic Arm

This paper deals with the kinematic synthesis of a planar tendon-driven robotic arm to remove skins by wine fermentation tanks, with three d.o.f.s and thus, one time redundant. This redundancy is required in order to obtain a deployable mechanism in the form of robotic arm, which shows a wide workspace, but occupies a small volume when fully flexed. The type and dimensional kinematic synthesis of the proposed robotic arm is developed through a serial combination of endless tendon-driven kinematic chains, which joints are remotely actuated. The synthesis methodology is first applied to a Cardan mechanism, a parallel motion generator, a robotic finger, and then, to the synthesis of the proposed robotic arm with the aim to satisfy the design specifications.