Abstract
Recently, robots are expected to work alongside humans in our daily environment. To realize a safe physical interaction between the robot and its surroundings, the robot must be able to control the flexibility at the end effector to external forces. In this research, a 2-link robotic arm with a biarticular muscle mechanism using an air cylinder was developed. Thanks to the mechanism, the robot can adjust the response characteristics at the end effector by changing the restriction condition of two joints. We conducted an experiment that the robot with and without the biarticular muscle mechanism rotated a roller by its end effector. The performances of the robot for the task in each restriction condition were compared. The results suggested that the robot can modify its response to external forces by changing the restriction condition depending of the assigned task.
