Kinematics design and human motion transfer for a humanoid service robot arm

Abstract

This paper focuses firstly, on the kinematics structure required for a humanoid service robot arm and secondly, on transferring human motion obtained from visual motion capture to the humanoid arm. The kinematics structure of a ten Degree of Freedom (DOF) humanoid arm which has a two DOF shoulder girdle and has a four DOF glenohumeral joint is presented. A method of obtaining the sternum position, which forms the movement reference frame for the ten DOF arm, is formulated from human motion capture data. The method is based on clavicle and spine workspaces. Results show that the sternum formulation corresponds well to the actual sternum position.