Towards the development of a novel upper-body pneumatic humanoid: Design and implementation

In this article, the conceptual design of a 14 Degree-of-Freedom (DoF) upper-body pneumatic humanoid is presented. The movement capabilities of this novel robotic setup are achieved via Pneumatic Artificial Muscles (PAMs), a form of actuation possessing crucial attributes for the development of biologically-inspired robots. To evaluate the feasibility of the humanoid's design properties, a 5-DoF robotic arm is developed and experimentally tested, while being studied from the scope of implementing a robotic structure capable of producing smooth and human-like motion responses, while maintaining the inherent compliance provided by the PAM technology.