Watch: Incredibly versatile active ball-joint gear is mind-bending

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Posted on 09/26/2024 5:33:44 PM PDT by Red Badger

The ABENICS active ball joint gear allows for extremely precise, high-torque movementYamagata University

At its core, this system developed at Yamagata University in Japan uses a "simple" cross-spherical gear paired with a monopole gear to control pitch, roll, and yaw. Essentially, the same full range of movement you'd see in a rotator cuff (the shoulder) of a human. With clever gearing, coupling, and sliding motions, the ABENICS gear is extremely precise in its movements.

By adding a second monopole gear and differentials in tandem, connected to a ball joint, this system becomes even more robust. Operators are able to achieve very precise, high-torque movement on the spherical gear with incredible accuracy.

If attached with an output link – like an arm or a leg – this means finite control over a very realistic joint in robotics for smooth and natural movement. Generally in today's humanoid robots, two or more motorized joints are used in tandem for a shoulder: one to control up and down, one for forward and backward motion, and a third to control rotation.

ABENICS – Active Ball Joint Mechanism With Three-DoF Based on Spherical Gear Meshings, as it's officially called – could simplify these joint structures, combining a full range of motion into a single joint.

ABENICS can roll, pitch, and yaw in every direction Yamagata University This type of gear hasn't been widely adopted in any commercial, medical or industrial ventures as of yet. Although its focus has been mostly in academia and research, the technology shows very high promise for future use in areas where high torque, high precision, and three-dimensional freedom of movement are needed.

The implications of what robots equipped with ABENICS joints could do are boundless.

(Excerpt) Read more at newatlas.com ...

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1 posted on 09/26/2024 5:33:44 PM PDT by Red Badger

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2 posted on 09/26/2024 5:34:56 PM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)

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3 posted on 09/26/2024 5:37:44 PM PDT by Openurmind

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4 posted on 09/26/2024 5:37:48 PM PDT by Dr. Sivana ("Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye." (John 2:5))

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5 posted on 09/26/2024 5:39:32 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar

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