Design and Simulation of a Human-like Robot Neck Mechanism

Abstract

A vast range of human-friendly interactive robotic heads is being developed by researchers. However, these robot heads require improvements in construction and behavior to achieve more human-like performance. Therefore, this paper proposes a design of a robotic head with human-like movements. The details of the kinetic analysis, particulars on mechanical design of the neck, the electrical and control system of the robotic neck are discussed. The design parameters have been identified by analyzing the bio-mechanical information related to basic head movements of the humans. This paper includes a way to imitate human neck movements of flexion and lateral flexion. Design of this robotic neck platform is done in such a way that it can be used as a platform for facilitating further developments in integrating more additive features to a robotic neck, which are to be incorporated as per needed by any developer.