The Bennett Linkage With Compliant Rolling Contact Joints And Its Application In An Origami Robot

In this thesis,the possibility of constructing the Bennett linkage with compliant rolling contact joints is explored.Based on the kinematic analysis of the Bennett linkage with two and four rolling contact joints,the design method is demonstrated.As an application of the Bennett linkage with four rolling contact joints,an origami-inspired robot with thick panels is prototyped.To achieve good performance of the robot,a novel compliant rolling contact joint is designed.The first part of the thesis is devoted to the kinematic analysis of the Bennett linkage with rolling contact joints.Due to the revolute axes of rolling contact joints are not fixed,it’s difficult to analyze directly.According to the line-symmetry of the Bennett linkage,the Bennett linkage with two rolling contact joints is regarded as the general line-symmetric Bricard linkage to analyze,and the Bennett linkage with four rolling contact joints is regarded as the line-symmetric 8R linkage to analyze.A method to build the Bennett linkage with two rolling contact joints is introduced and verified.The corresponding kinematic path is same as the original Bennett linkage.In the second part,an origami-inspired worm robot with thick panels and compliant rolling contact joints is prototyped.The origami of thick panels provides a stiff structure for the robot which has single degree of freedom driven by a servo.The robot structure is designed based on the Bennett linkage with four rolling contact joints and the Arc origami pattern.The robot is assembled with compliant rolling contact joints to reduce the weight,friction and size in comparison with conventional revolute joints,and simplify the fabrication and assembly.Experimental results show that the robot is able to generate clawing motion by folding and unfolding the thick panel structure.