Design of Lightweight Manipulator for a Quadruped Walking Robot to Monitor the Status of Ship Equipments

In order to inspect the main equipment of ships, condition inspection methods using quadruped walking robots that can overcome various obstacles is being actively researched. However, quadruped robots have a limited pay-load capacity due to torque limitations in their joints, and as a result, it is necessary to secure a lightweight manipulator that can carry equipment for inspection. In this paper, the mechanism of lightweight manipulator for a quadruped walking robot was derived by analyzing its working space, and the motor requirements were determined through manipulator path generation and mechanism dynamics analysis using multi-body dynamics simulations with MATLAB Robotics and ADAMS software. Finally, experimental verification was conducted through a manipulator prototype. The procedures of this study will be useful in designing a manipulator to control buttons and knobs of main equipment.