Abstract: A novel robotic anthropopathic arm employing Sarrus linkage as its joints is proposed and a 5-DOF anthropopathic arm based on Sarrus linkage is designed according to the structure characteristics and deficiency of general robotic arms. In order to verify the advantages and lay a foundation for optimization of structure design, the forward kinematics characteristics are analyzed with homogeneous coordinates transformation method to obtain the workspace. The posture transformation matrix is derived. The trajectory of the centroid of wrist is plotted, and the results prove that the proposed robotic arm is possessed with common characteristics of general arms, and can extend its workspace. Besides, the robotic arm is highly flexible. The novel robotic anthropopathic arm with Sarrus linkage is able to overcome the limitations of links and expand the workspace, which is superior over other arms, to satisfy the needs of different working conditions.

Key words: Anthropopathic arm, Kinematics, Robot, Sarrus, Workspace