Simulation-based actuator selection for redundantly actuated robot mechanisms

This article presents a simulation-based strategy for sizing the actuators of a redundantly actuated robotic mechanism. The class of robotic mechanisms we consider may contain one or more closed loops and possess an arbitrary number of active and passive joints, and the number of actuators may exceed themechanism’s kinematic degrees of freedom. Our approach relies on a series of dynamic simulations of the mechanism, by applying Taguchi’s method to systematically perform the simulations. To efficiently perform each of the dynamic simulations, we develop, using tools from modern screw theory, new recursive algorithms for the forward and inverse dynamics of the class of redundantly actuated mechanisms described. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.