Design of the chained form manipulator

Exploiting the unique features of nonholonomic systems, we have proposed and fabricated the nonholonomic manipulator which is a controllable n joint manipulator with only two actuators. In order to create its nonholonomic constraint, a special type of velocity transmission, called the nonholonomic gear, was used. There are many possible alternatives of designing underactuated manipulators using the nonholonomic gear. The nonholonomic manipulator was designed focussing on the mechanical simplicity. In this paper, we establish the design procedure of underactuated manipulators whose kinematic model can be converted to the chained form, giving priority to the practical control aspects. As an example that has control simplicity, the chained form manipulator was designed according to the proposed design concept.