Design of a new tendon driven haptic interface with six degrees of freedom

A six degrees-of-freedom manipulator with force feedback capabilities has been designed for using as a haptic interface (HI) in virtual environments and teleoperators. The HI system is devised to address tasks performed by people with small tools, involving dextrous manipulation. The proposed manipulator new kinematics is fully parallel and actuator redundant. Actuator redundancy refers to the addition of more actuators than strictly necessary to control the mechanism, without increasing the mobility. The use of this form of redundancy includes the ability to partially control the internal forces and augments the kinematic dexterity. A new tendon drive is used for each of the six degrees of freedom, allowing all actuators to be fixed to the ground. Kinematic optimization of the dexterity and redundant actuation analysis of the manipulator has been developed.