Mechanical Design for Whole-Arm Manipulation

Abstract

This paper describes the performance requirements and mechanical design of an arm designed and built at MIT for whole-arm manipulation. Whole-arm manipulation began as a research objective to explore the benefits of manipulating objects with all surfaces of a robotic manipulator-not just the fingertips of an attached robotic hand. The need for robust environment contact by all surfaces of the robotic hardware prompted a re-evaluation of traditional manipulator design requirements and spurred the invention of new transmission mechanisms for robots.