Provided are a fusion system of a mechanical arm and a dexterous hand, and a control method therefor. The fusion system comprises a four-degree-of-freedom mechanical arm, a dexterous hand wrist mounted at the tail end of the four-degree-of-freedom mechanical arm, and a dexterous hand mounted on the dexterous hand wrist, wherein the dexterous hand wrist is a single-joint spatial orthogonal two-degree-of-freedom wrist. In a motion control method, the fusion system of the four-degree-of-freedom mechanical arm and the dexterous hand is regarded as a six-axis series mechanical arm, and according to a joint angle, a position and an attitude of the tail end of the dexterous hand wrist can be obtained by means of a forward kinematics method; and according to the position and attitude of the tail end of the dexterous hand wrist, the joint angle can be obtained by means of an inverse kinematics numerical solution method, and then a control instruction is obtained and sent to a servo position controller, so as to drive the tail end of the dexterous hand wrist to reach a preset position and attitude. A six-degree-of-freedom series-parallel mechanism combining the mechanical arm and the dexterous hand wrist has multi-degree-of-freedom redundancy, such that rotation of the five-finger dexterous hand can be achieved without a wide-range motion of the mechanical arm.

A method and an apparatus for providing six degrees of precision motion. As disclosed herein a parallel kinematic manipulator is formed using six fixed length kinematic supporting links. The kinematic links may include a high-resolution position encoder to provide position feedback information. Movement of the manipulator is affected using six linear thrust mechanisms along two parallel linear slide mechanisms. The combination of a parallel kinematic structure and six linear actuators on two linear slides provides a manipulator capable of six degrees of freedom to position components or instruments with high accuracy, stiffness, and/or repeatability with an exceptionally long travel in one degree of freedom.

A connection structure includes bushings attached to two links so as to be rotatable about an axis perpendicular to a plane containing two longitudinal axes of the two links; a biasing mechanism spanning between the bushings of the two links and applying an elastic restoring force in a direction in which the two bushings move closer together; and a connection member having two attachment holes through which the bushings can pass in a direction of the axis and regulating a distance between the bushings to be less than or equal to a prescribed distance. The bushings include claw portions projecting radially outward. The attachment holes are formed in a shape allowing the bushings to pass therethrough at a prescribed attachment phase around the axis coinciding with the claw portions of the bushings. A phase of the bushings is regulated to a phase that does not match the attachment phase.

A connection structure includes bushings attached to two links so as to be rotatable about an axis perpendicular to a plane containing two longitudinal axes of the two links; a biasing mechanism spanning between the bushings of the two links and applying an elastic restoring force in a direction in which the two bushings move closer together; and a connection member having two attachment holes through which the bushings can pass in a direction of the axis and regulating a distance between the bushings to be less than or equal to a prescribed distance. The bushings include claw portions projecting radially outward. The attachment holes are formed in a shape allowing the bushings to pass therethrough at a prescribed attachment phase around the axis coinciding with the claw portions of the bushings. A phase of the bushings is regulated to a phase that does not match the attachment phase.

A micromanipulator for mounting on the end of a macromanipulator, the micromanipulator comprising: a connection plate with a at least a first and second motor connected to a rigidly mounted base section, a first rotational section connected to the base section about a pivotable axis, the first rotational section being further connected to a slider rod which is connected to the first motor, and a second rotational section connected to the first rotational section about a pivotable axis, the second rotational section being further connected to a slider rod which is connected to the second motor and wherein the rotational joints between the base section and first joint section and the rotational joint between the first and second rotational sections are offset by 90.

A robotic end effector apparatus and method of replacing a first flexible gripper sheet of a robotic end effector apparatus for grasping an article using a suction effect is disclosed herein. The robotic end effector may include a suction tube having an open lower end, a mounting flange fixed to the suction tube adjacent the open lower end, a clamping ring slidable received around the suction tube above the mounting flange, a biasing spring biasing the clamping ring downward toward the mounting flange, and a flexible sheet having a center opening smaller than the mounting flange in a relaxed state of the flexible sheet, the flexible sheet being stretchable so that the flexible sheet can be pulled upward over the mounting flange. The flexible sheet may be clamped between the clamping ring and the mounting flange with the flexible sheet extending radially outward beyond the mounting flange.

A method of operating a robot includes operating a robot that includes a body assembly that includes a frame formed of at least one body joint assembly, and at least one pair of joint linear actuators that form the at least one body joint. The method further includes controlling the at least one pair of joint linear actuators to operate in combination to adjust the at least one body joint assembly in two degrees of freedom through differential linear actuation.

A robotic end effector includes a mounting block, a shaft, an end effector, and a plurality of spring biased mounting fasteners. The shaft extends from the mounting block and has a longitudinal axis. The end effector is mounted on an end of the shaft for engaging an article to be grasped. The plurality of spring biased mounting fasteners may be configured to connect the mounting block to a movable mounting frame of a robot such that in the absence of a lateral deflecting force being applied to the end effector the mounting block is held resiliently against the movable mounting frame of the robot with the longitudinal axis in a first orientation, and further such that when a lateral deflecting force is applied to the end effector the end of the shaft can deflect laterally such that the longitudinal axis is skewed from the first orientation.