Gravity Compensation Mechanism Inspired by Sauropods’ Skeleton

We propose a gravity compensation mechanism that combines practical compensation performance and a simple structure inspired by the skeleton of sauropods. Conventional gravity compensation mechanisms typically involve complex structures and design theories to be unaffected by variations in posture and fluctuations in self-weight induced by external loads. In considering a simpler structure, we focused on the simple gravity compensation functionality observed in sauropods, a particularly gigantic group of dinosaurs characterized by their long necks and tails, making them the largest terrestrial animals in history, and referred to their skeleton. Our proposed method emphasizes simplicity over strict compensation mechanisms, employing a straightforward structure of wires aligned with the articulated links. In this paper, we demonstrate the mechanism’s compensation performance, showing how the gravity compensation ratio varies with different postures through simulation. Additionally, we fabricated a prototype to test the compensation effect, further verifying the effectiveness of our proposed mechanism.