Lightweight, Lateral and Sagittal Plane Symmetrical Biped Robot Design

It is commonly noted in the literature that reducing mass and moment of inertia lowers the requirements for powerful electromechanical hardware and improves the overall energy efficiency of legged robots. For this reason, the humanoid robot RB2, the second of its kind at Balikesir University, has been developed iteratively. The motivation for this research is to design a lightweight, low-power humanoid robot to gain physical insight into the viability of using Delrin and 3D-printed ABS parts in its support structure and to enhance the robot’s efficiency in terms of weight and, as a result, power requirements. The number of degrees of freedom and the order of the joint motions of the planes are optimised to reduce moments of inertia and increase the range of motion of the robot’s legs. Additionally, the mechanical structure incorporates design features to facilitate assembly and maintenance. The newer robot’s weight is reduced to 25% of our first humanoid robot’s, while maintaining the same joint range of motion.