Dr. Guilin Yang received the B. Eng degree and M. Eng degree from Jilin University of Technology (now Jilin University), China, in 1985 and 1988 respectively, and Ph.D. degree from Nanyang Technological University in 1999. From 1988 to 1995, he had been with the School of Mechanical Engineering, Shijiazhuang Railway Institute, China, as a lecturer, a division head, and then the vice dean of the school. Since 1998, he has been with Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech), Singapore. Currently, he is a senior scientist and the manager of the Mechanics Group. His research interests include modeling, analysis, and design of - precision mechanisms/machines, parallel-kinematics manipulators, modular robots, robotic automaton systems, electromagnetic actuators, and rehabilitation devices. He has published over one hundred and fifty technical papers in referred journals and conference proceedings and filed eight patents. He is now a member of Robotics Technical Committee of IFToMM, the committee chair of Singapore IEEE Robotics and Automation Chapter, the Technical Editor of IEEE/ASME Transaction on Mechatronics, and the Editorial Board Member of Frontiers of Mechanical Engineering. He is also the deputy secretary of the Singapore-China Association for Advancement of Science and Technology (SCAAST).

Modular Cable-driven Robotic Arms for Intrinsically-Safe Manipulation

Assistive robots are being realized as effective tools for millions of elderly and disabled people to gain some independence and improve their quality of life. The objective of this work is to develop dexterous robotic arms to perform various service tasks safely for the elderly and disabled people. To simplify the development efforts, a modular design concept has been employed. Three types of rotational joint modules have been proposed as the basic building blocks of the modular robotic arms, i.e., the 1-DOF revolute joint module, the 2-DOF universal joint module, and the 3-DOF spherical joint module. With an inventory of such joint modules, various robotic arm configurations can be constructed to cater for different service tasks. To mimic the unilateral driving properties of the human muscles, all these joint modules are driven by cables that can pull but not push. In addition, as all the cable-driving units are mounted onto the base of the robotic arm, the arm has an extremely lightweight mechanical structure for intrinsically-safe manipulation. However, due to the unilateral driving property of cables, the existing analysis and design methods developed for conventional serial or parallel robotic arms are not readily applicable, which makes the design of the modular cable-driven robotic arm a challenging task. In this presentation, the major critical design analysis issues pertaining to the modular cable-driven robotic arms, such as the displacement, force-closure, stiffness, and workspace analyses, will be discussed. Simulation examples will be presented to illustrate the proposed design and analysis approach. A prototype of a 7-DOF cable-driven robotic arm that resembles the human arm will be demonstrated through a video clip.