Kinematic decoupling in mechanisms and application to a passive hand controller design

Observations regarding the kinematics of mechanisms are applied to the synthesis of a passive hand controller. It is argued that stiffness (and damping) properties are central to the effectiveness of such devices and in particular that the simplicity of these properties is crucial. What simple means is analyzed and it is shown that only certain types of manipulators can appropriately be used. In effect, decoupling is shown to be architecture and configuration dependent. The properties of parallel mechanisms are reviewed and found appropriate for restricted-workspace hand controllers. A particular kinematic design is then derived and a practical implementation described. 0 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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