Design of a Spherically Actuated Human Interaction Robot Head

This paper presents the development of a mechanism for actuating a sphere holonomically about 3 degrees of freedom (DOF). The target application is a robot head for mounting inside a vehicle to provide a driver with companionship, location specific information, and other assistance, via head motions...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Mitamura, Takeshi, Hanumara, Nevan Clancy, Slocum, Alexander H
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Format: Article
Published: ASME International 2019
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/120064
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5048-4109
Description
Summary:This paper presents the development of a mechanism for actuating a sphere holonomically about 3 degrees of freedom (DOF). The target application is a robot head for mounting inside a vehicle to provide a driver with companionship, location specific information, and other assistance, via head motions in conjunction with auditory communication. Prior art is reviewed and two designs are presented: One mechanism is located below the sphere and provides an unlimited range of motion (ROM), and the other is contained entirely within the sphere but has a limited range of motion. The latter is stable and easily mounted, provides a clean appearance, and is particularly suited to human interaction applications.