Final-position of a single degree-of-freedom tendon arm

Abstract

A decentralized controller for a mechanical analog of human biceps/triceps control of forearm movement has been designed and tested. The analysis, design, and implementation of this system should be of interest not only as a control application, but also because it brings out some important features which are generic to the positioning of tendon arms of all types. Most particularly, a crude but effective form of load compensation is shown to be possible without (the equivalent of) proprioceptive feedback; this supports recent physiological findings which suggest that large arm movements in primates may be predominantly open-loop processes of final position control.