Guiding effects and friction modeling for tendon driven systems

This paper discusses tendon friction effects regarding guiding and material selection. In order to extract valuable information for designers of tendon driven systems, several experiments are conducted to investigate e. g. the intrinsic friction or sliding effect. The results are used to build an experimental friction model and to derive a set of guidelines. The mechanical designer can use the proposed models to anticipate the friction for a given tendon path. Additionally, the guidelines help the mechanical designer to systematically verify the numerous constraints involved in the design process of a tendon driven system.