Investigation of the Possibility of High-Speed Motion of a Non-Pulley Musculoskeletal Robot

Robots with parallel-link structures are generally considered useful for achieving high-speed motion; however, they are typically large in size. Robot size can be reduced by using a serial-link structure. However, their moving parts, typically having a large mass or moment of inertia, are considered unsuitable for high-speed motion. High-speed motion performance can be improved by avoiding mounting actuators on the moving parts using some method to transmit the drive force or motion. In this letter, we propose a model in which a non-pulley musculoskeletal robot, previously studied by us, is modified to avoid mounting actuators on the movable parts. We demonstrate that the robot can be controlled to achieve the target posture using this modified model. We also discuss the feasibility of high-speed motion of a prototype robot using muscular forces computed for several motion patterns based on the minimum muscle-tension change model.