Study on cooperative multiple manipulators with passive joints

In this paper, we consider cooperative multiple manipulators with passive joints and study the effect of a combination of active and passive joints. This kind of manipulator system may restrict the direction of the end-effector´s force depending on which joints are set to passive ones. In the case of operating and transferring a common object, this restriction may give a less effective force and excessive internal force to the object. To use driving force effectively, the question of which joints are set to passive ones must be considered. Therefore, we show the effect of the joint configurations by case studies.