A water hydraulic robot

The design of a novel robot is outlined. The robot has three important design features: water driven hydraulics, harmonic drive gearboxes used as differentials and a planar five-bar parallelogram mechanism. The water motor/valve characteristics are described for a pre-prototype system and these are used in a simulation of step responses which are shown to exhibit limit cycling behaviour for small step demands. These simulations agree well with experimental behaviour and have been used to aid the design of improved motors.<
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