Design of a Spherically Actuated Human Interaction Robot Head

This paper presents the development of a mechanism for actuating a sphere holonomically about 3 degrees of freedom (DOF). The target application is a robot head for mounting inside a vehicle to provide a driver with companionship, location specific information, and other assistance, via head motions in conjunction with auditory communication. Prior art is reviewed and two designs are presented: One mechanism is located below the sphere and provides an unlimited range of motion (ROM), and the other is contained entirely within the sphere but has a limited range of motion. The latter is stable and easily mounted, provides a clean appearance, and is particularly suited to human interaction applications. [DOI:10.1115/1.4006263]