Abstract
This paper deals with the safety palpation arm of a robot for tele-ultrasound imaging diagnosis as an application example of intelligent structures. Dead loads of a probe and its grip parts act on the tip of the arm downward by about 50N always and contact force on a practice body is added on them upward adversely by about 35N at palpation. The arm must have high flexural rigidity normally, but it is necessary to restrain excessive contact force at reckles driving less than human pain tolerance 75N. Therefore, various kinds of skin structures are constructed with a trigger and reinforcements as the arms, and it is inspected with experiments that these structures may have ideal load characteristics for the functions and the safety of the arm.
