Mechanical Joint Design for Gravity Compensation of a Robot Manipulator

In this paper, a parallelogram mechanism is presented for the gravity compensation of a human arm like-robot manipulator. The arm mimics a human arm having three degrees-of freedom. A gravity compensation system is synthesized to compensate for the self-weight of the system. The design challenge of making a miniature compensation system is also discussed. The joints were designed using a ball bearing and fabricated using 3D printer technology. Experimental studies of compensating gravity are provided to confirm the parallelogram design.