Development of a parallel link arm for object handling by wheeled mobile robot

This paper presents a parallel link arm for a wheeled mobile robot. A parallel mechanism is useful for a mobile robot because it has more advantages on high output power than serial link. Conventional parallel mobile manipulators have not been able to perform handling task such as picking up an object on the floor. Developed parallel link arm in this study has a hand which directs downward. It is mounted on the robot with the link for swinging so that it is able to carry an object with handling in wide area. This paper describes development of the parallel link arm and analyses its kinematics. We also consider basic motions of the arm for object handling tasks. Experimental results demonstrated the usefulness of developed parallel link arm for object handling tasks by a wheeled mobile robot.