Modelling and Mechanical Design of Underactuated Robot Manipulators with Impact and Friction

This paper provides a theoretical approach for describing underactuated mechanical systems and conceptual ideas for the design of an underactuated robot manipulator. The mathematical description uses the Linear Complementarity Problem (LCP) formulation in order to handle the equations of motion with inequality constraints. The robot manipulator serves later on as an experimental platform for the verification of control strategies of underactuated systems and the exploration of underactuated walking patterns. (© 2004 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)