Abstract

In this paper, we developed a new human-like robotic upper limb with large working area thanks to the novel robotic shoulder using a double joint mechanism. This joint mechanism is composed of two ball joints driven by the pneumatically connected linear actuator pairs to enlarge the range of motion compared to a simple ball joint while keeping the simplicity of the control. Thanks to not only the robotic shoulder but also the robotic blade bone and elbow joint with human comparable range of motion, the robot is capable of throwing a ball like a human. We also investigated the characteristics of the shoulder joint mechanism.