A 3-DOF Bionic Waist Joint for Humanoid Robot

In this study, a 3 degree-of-freedom bionic waist joint was developed with coupled tendon-driven mechanism. This bionic waist joint can not only ensure the safety of the human-robot interface, but also increase the load capacity without increasing the weight. The coupled tendon-driven mechanism enables the motion of each joint to be driven by at least two motors together, and enables a maximum torque of 3 times the maximum motor output torque at each joint. The bionic waist joint has similar kinematic characteristics to a human waist, including degrees of freedom (DOF) and range of motion (ROM). The problem of coexistence of coupling and decoupling in the same rotating joint was solved with a novel mechanism that can promote further versatility of the coupled tendon-driven mechanism. The basic movements and characteristics of the waist was validated in the experiment.