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Kinematic Synthesis of a Tendon-Driven Robotic Arm

Chapter · January 2021

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-55807-9_44

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 Kinematic Synthesis of a Tendon-Driven
Robotic Arm

Giorgio Figliolini1(&), Chiara Lanni1, Luciano Di Donato2,

Riccardo Melloni3, and Adriano Paolo Bacchetta4
1
University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, Cassino, Italy
{figliolini,lanni}@unicas.it
2
Inail, Rome, Italy
l.didonato@inail.it
3
University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy
riccardo.melloni@unimore.it
4
EURSAFE (European Interdisciplinary Applied Research Center for Safety),
Parma, Italy
presidente@eursafe.eu

Abstract. This paper deals with the kinematic synthesis of a planar tendon-
driven robotic arm to remove skins by wine fermentation tanks, with three d.o.f.s
and thus, one time redundant. This redundancy is required in order to obtain a
deployable mechanism in the form of robotic arm, which shows a wide work-
space, but occupies a small volume when fully flexed. The type and dimensional
kinematic synthesis of the proposed robotic arm is developed through a serial
combination of endless tendon-driven kinematic chains, which joints are remo-
tely actuated. The synthesis methodology is first applied to a Cardan mechanism,
a parallel motion generator, a robotic finger, and then, to the synthesis of the
proposed robotic arm with the aim to satisfy the design specifications.

Keywords: Robotic arm
Endless tendon-driven kinematic chain
Tendon-

driven mechanisms
Kinematic synthesis

1 Introduction

The main motivation of this research activity was to propose novel technical solutions
in order to solve confined space problems, as that to remove skins by wine fermentation
tanks, which task is still carried out manually by a worker operating inside the tank.
This job can be very dangerous because of the intense smell that is generated by the
wine fermentation, but also for the limited opening to entry and exit, which problem
becomes more serious when an accident happens [1]. Thus, the main target was to
avoid the entrance of workers inside the tank and thus, to design a deployable
mechanism in the form of a robotic arm that allows the removing of skins by the tank,
but occupies a small space when fully flexed, in order to be moved in the factory easily.
According to these design specifications, a novel tendon-driven robotic arm was
proposed in [2], which kinematic synthesis is analyzed in depth in this paper, in order
to obtain a serial and remotely actuated deployable mechanism with three d.o.f.s.

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license
to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
V. Niola and A. Gasparetto (Eds.): IFToMM ITALY 2020, MMS 91, pp. 386–393, 2021.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55807-9_44
 Kinematic Synthesis of a Tendon-Driven Robotic Arm 387

2 Endless Tendon-Driven Mechanisms

A generic tendon-driven mechanism can be obtained by using two basic mechanisms,

as first proposed in [3–5]: end-less tendons and open-ended tendons. In the first case,
the belt or tendon is wrapped around two pulleys in closed loop, while in the second
case, the tendon is wrapped in open loop. In particular, endless-tendons can be of
parallel-type and cross-type. They are composed by a pulley i of radius Ri and a pulley
j of radius Rj. They are equivalent by a kinematic viewpoint to a pair of internal gears
(parallel type) or of external gears (cross type). The centrodes for the relative motion
between the pulleys i and j can be considered as the pitch circles of a gear pair.
Referring to Fig. 1, one can assign a positive rotation versus to each joint axis of a
pulley pair and the fundamental circuit equation is given by

R i hi;k ¼ R j hj;k ð1Þ

where hi,k and hj,k denote the relative rotations of pulleys i and j with respect to the link
k, while Ri and Rj are the radii of the two pulleys i and j, respectively. The sign of
Eq. (1) is determined by the rotation of the tendon, which is positive for the parallel
type (Fig. 1a) and negative for the cross-type (Fig. 1b).
The relative rotation among three or more coaxial members can be expressed as

hi;j ¼ hi;k  hj;k ð2Þ

Referring to Fig. 2, links 1, 2 and 3 are connected in series to shape an open-loop

kinematic chain, where 0 is the fixed frame and pulley 4 is the end-effector. The
rotation of the base pulley j can be related to that of j + 3 through the angles h1,0, h2,1,
h3,2 and h4,3.
The position equation can be obtained by the three circuits (j, j + 1, 1), (j + 1,
j + 2, 2) and (j + 2, j + 3, 4), where the first two terms between the parenthesis denote
the pulleys, while the third term denotes their connecting link.

Fig. 1. Endless tendon-driven kinematic chains: a) parallel-type; b) cross-type.

388 G. Figliolini et al.

The equation for each circuit can be expressed as

Circuitðj; j þ 1; 1Þ R j hj;1 ¼ R j þ 1 hj þ 1;1 hj;0 ¼ h1;0 þ hj;1 ð3Þ

Circuitðj þ 1; j þ 2; 2Þ R j þ 1 hj þ 1;2 ¼ R j þ 2 hj þ 2;2 hj þ 1;1 ¼ hj þ 1;2 þ h2;1

ð4Þ

Circuitðj þ 2; j þ 3; 4Þ R j þ 2 hj þ 2;3 ¼ R j þ 3 hj þ 3;3 hj þ 2;2 ¼ hj þ 2;3 þ h3;2

ð5Þ

Substituting Eqs. (4) and (5) into Eq. (3), one has

Rjþ1 Rjþ2 Rjþ3

hj;0 ¼ h1;0  h2;1 þ h3;2 þ h4;3 ð6Þ
Rj Rj Rj

In general, the relationship between the rotation of the base pulley and the joint
angles for a tendon-driven open-loop kinematic chain with (m + 1) links, takes the
form

Rjþ1 Rjþ2 R j þ ðm þ 1Þ
hj;0 ¼ h1;0  h2;1  h3;2  . . .  hm;m1 ð7Þ
Rj Rj Rj

Equation (7) is now applied to common tendon-driven mechanisms, as the Cardan

straight-line mechanism, a parallel motion generator and a robotic finger, which are
significant examples to validate both cases of one d.o.f. and n-d.o.f.s mechanisms.

Fig. 2. Tendon-driven mechanism with n-d.o.f.s.

 Kinematic Synthesis of a Tendon-Driven Robotic Arm 389

Some previous results and applications are reported in [6–9], while the attention was
focused on the synthesis and analysis robotic fingers in [10–13]. More recently, the
dynamic analysis and control of tendon-driven robotic arms were analyzed in [14, 15].
Applying Eq. (7) in the case of 2 d.o.f.s, one has

Rjþ1 R2
hj;0 ¼ h1;0 þ h2;1 h3;0 ¼ h1;0 þ h2;1 ð8Þ
Rj R3

where subscript 3 indicates the pulley j of Fig. 2. In matrix form, one has




h1;0 1 0 h1;0
¼ R2 ð9Þ
h3;0 1 R3 h2;1

Referring to Fig. 3a, for R0 = 2 R2 and hj,0 = 0, one has h2,1 = −2 h1,0. Conse-
quently, it obtains: h2;0 ¼ h1;0 þ h2;1 ¼ h1;0  2 h1;0 ¼ h1;0 , which shows that links
1and 2 of the Cardan mechanism rotate of the same absolute angle in opposite versus.
Consequently, a straight-line mechanism is obtained for the same length of links 1 and 2.
Similarly, referring to Fig. 3b, for R0 = R2, one has h2,1 = −h1,0 and thus, it
obtains: h2;0 ¼ h1;0 þ h2;1 ¼ h1;0  h1;0 ¼ 0, which proofs that link 2 performs a
parallel motion.
The last example is represented by tendon-driven finger mechanisms, which can
show three d.o.f.s or one d.o.f., even generated by the same kinematic chain, as shown
in Figs. 4a and 4b, respectively. Applying Eq. (7), one has in matrix form:
2 3 2 32 3
h1;0 1 0 0 h1;0
4 h5;0 5 ¼ 4 1 R 2 =R 5 0 54 h2;1 5 ð10Þ
h6;0 1 R 4 =R 6 R 3 =R 6 h3;2

Fig. 3. Tendon-driven mechanisms: a) Cardan mechanism; b) parallel motion generator.

390 G. Figliolini et al.

Fig. 4. Tendon-driven finger mechanisms: a) 3 d.o.f.s, b) one-d.o.f.

A finger mechanism with one d.o.f. can be easily obtained from the proposed
kinematic structure by imposing that h5,0 = h6,0 = 0, which means to fix the pulleys 5
and 6 to base link 0. In particular, when all pulleys radii are equal between them, it
yields

R5 R 2R 6 þ R 4R 5 þ R 3R 5
K1 ¼ þ1 ¼ 2 K2 ¼ þ1 ¼ 4 ð11Þ
R2 R 2R 3

Thus, one has: h1,0 = 45°, h2,0 = 90° and h3,0 = 180°, as sketched in Fig. 4b.

3 Tendon-Driven Robotic Arm

The functional mechanical design of the proposed robotic arm has been carried out by
first developing the type synthesis of the whole mechanism, which is characterized by a
3R (3-Revolute) planar mechanism with 3 d.o.f.s and thus, one time redundant. The
corresponding actuators are installed on the fixed frame of the robotic arm and the
motion transmission to each moving link is carried out by means of different endless
tendon driven mechanisms, which are appropriately connected among them in series
and parallel. Referring to Fig. 5a), link 4 is remotely driven through the driving
sprocket 5, which transmits the motion to a pair of sprockets 6 that are attached to each
other, but idle on the same axis of the joint connecting links 1 and 2. Similarly, other
two mechanisms of the same type and connected in series between them, transmit the
motion to the output link 4, which can rotate of the same angle as 5. Referring to
Fig. 5b), link 3 is remotely driven by the driving sprocket 8 (bleu), which transmits the
motion to the idle pair of sprockets 9, and one of them drives the sprocket that is
attached to 3. However, the planar motion of link 3 is coupled with that of 4, since this
is moved along with link 3 through a pure translation, as sketched in dotted line in
 Kinematic Synthesis of a Tendon-Driven Robotic Arm 391

Fig. 5. Transmission systems of the proposed tendon-driven robotic arm with 3 d.o.f.s: a) link 4;
b) link 3 (translation of link 4); c) link 2 (translation of links 3 and 4). (Color figure online)

Fig. 5b). Finally, link 2 is remotely driven by sprocket 10, which transmits directly the
motion to the sprocket attached to link 2, as illustrated in red color in Fig. 5c).
Referring to Fig. 5a, one has:

R06 R07 R 4
h5;1 ¼ h4;3 h5;1 ¼ h4;3 ð12Þ
R 5 R006 R07

where the sprockets 6 and 7 are idles around their axes.

Consequently, link 4 can be rotated by the driving the sprocket 5 without to move
links 2 and 3 for which h2;1 ¼ h3;2 ¼ 0.
Referring to Fig. 5b, link 3 is moved by the driving sprocket 8 through the idle
sprocket 9, but link 4 is moved through a pure translation, when sprocket 5 is fixed,
392 G. Figliolini et al.

Thus, applying Eq. (7), one has:

R06 R07 R 4 R0 R0 R0
h5;1 ¼ 00 00 h4;3 þ 6 007 h3;2 þ 6 h2;1 ¼ 0 h2;1 ¼ 0 ð13Þ
R 5 R6 R 7 R5 R6 R5

which gives h4;3 ¼ h3;2 and, in turn

R09 R 3
h8;1 ¼ h3;2 h8;1 ¼ h3;2 ð14Þ
R 8 R009

which gives h2;1 ¼ 0.

Therefore, for the driving sprocket 8, one has

R09 R07 R 4 R09 R07 R09

h8;1 ¼ h 4;3 þ h 3;2 þ h2;1 ¼ 0 ð15Þ
R 8 R009 R007 R 8 R009 R8

which gives h4;3 ¼ 0 by which h3;2 ¼ h2;1 .

Similarly, for the driving sprocket 10, one has

R2
h10;1 ¼ h2;1 h10;1 ¼ h2;1 ð16Þ
R 10

and, in turn, it obtains

R06 R07 R 4 R0 R0 R0
h10;1 ¼ 00 00 h4;3 þ 6 007 h3;2 þ 6 h2;1 ð17Þ
R 10 R6 R7 R10 R6 R10

Therefore, the proposed tendon-driven robotic arm with three d.o.f.s (one time
redundant) can be controlled kinematically by means of the matrix equation
2 3
R 06 R07 R 4
2 3 0 0 2 3
h5;1 6 R 5 R006 R07 7 h2;1
4 h8;1 5 ¼ 6
6 0
R09R07 R0 R0
 R90 R007 RR004
74
7 h3;2 5 ð18Þ
4 0 R 8 R009 5
h10;1 h4;3
8 9 7
R6 R06 R07
R10  R 10 R006 0

which takes the following simplified form:

2 3 2 32 3
h5;1 0 0 1 h2;1
4 h8;1 5 ¼ 4 0 1 1 54 h3;2 5 ð19Þ
h10;1 1 1 0 h4;3

when all sprockets have the same radii.

 Kinematic Synthesis of a Tendon-Driven Robotic Arm 393

4 Conclusions

The kinematic synthesis of a planar tendon-driven robotic arm with three d.o.f.s has
been proposed to remove skins by wine fermentation tanks. The design specifications
required a redundant and deployable mechanism with a remote actuation, in order to
obtain a wide workspace and a small volume, when fully closed and flexed.
The synthesis methodology has been first applied to a Cardan mechanism, a parallel
motion generator, a robotic finger, and then, to the synthesis of the proposed robotic
arm by giving a general equation in matrix form.

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