Investigation of design parameters of slack enabling actuator

Tendon drive is commonly used in various kind of machines. And, the spool is commonly used to wind and unwind the tendon because of its simplicity and compactness. However, the slack of the tendon causes the derailment of the tendon out of the spool and fails the system. In order to use the tendon drive with the spool without concerning about the derailment, the slack enabling actuator is previously proposed. In this paper, the performance criteria and the design parameters affecting the performance of the slack enabling actuator are discussed.