We present a novel manipulator for aerial vehicles to perform grasping and manipulation tasks. The goal is to design a low-cost, relatively light but strong manipulator with a large workspace and compact storage space that can be mounted on an unmanned aerial system. A novel design solution based on the Spiral Zipper, an expanding tube, …
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Tether-Tube Robot are a new type of parallel robots constructed from tethers and tubes. It is similar to cable robots but, rather than just using cables, expanding tubes are also used to do actuation. This design is achieved by utilizing a novel prismatic joint called Spiral Zipper developed in ModLab.
Spiral Zipper is a novel linear actuator developed in Modlab. The fundamental concept is that a long thin strip of material is generally flexible along its length but stiff along its height. If we pattern the upper and lower edges of the strip , winding this strip in a spiral will create a rigid load-carrying …