Direct-drive robot arms, often utilized in manipulators and humanoid robots, face challenges related to increased distal mass and reduced backdrivability due to motors being placed at each joint. This paper presents a 4-DOF elbow-wrist mechanism for a robot arm driven by wires. The design includes the upper arm, elbow, upper forearm, lower forearm, and wrist, with all actuators concentrated in the upper arm to minimize distal mass. To achieve this, the mechanism employs rolling-contact joints, forearm rotator idlers, and agonist-antagonist wire pairs. Additionally, a differential mechanism is integrated at the wrist, allowing for yaw rotation at the forearm while enabling roll and pitch rotations at a single point, thereby eliminating inter-axis offset and mimicking human wrist motion. A prototype was fabricated and evaluated, achieving an elbow flexion of 107°, forearm yaw exceeding 90° in both directions, wrist roll of 63° and 50° in each direction, and wrist pitch of 33° in both directions. The independence of each degree of freedom was validated, and torque efficiency from the upper arm to the wrist tip was measured and analyzed.

Laparoscopic surgical instruments have been used widely since 1980s and they are still important tool to the medical field as the surgical robot systems spread. In this study we devised three types of motorized mechanism to reduce the user hand fatigue. We detailed the mechanism of each type and compared the performances with several indices such as a bending angle, response time and number of mechanical components. And also we show the movement relationships among the jaw joint, passive gimbal set and motors in the case of MPDG (Motor Drive with a Push Disk and Driven Disk of Gimbal Mechanism) type during the typical jaw joint motions. MTPS (Modified Two Parallel Semicircle Guide Mechanism) type excels others in response time and number of components while showing the increase of load and kinematic occlusion during the diagonal movement. MBDG (Motor Drive with a Ball-Screw, Link and Disk Type Gimbal Mechanism) type shows the medium level bending performance with slow response time and large number of components. Lastly MPDG type excels in jaw joint bending performance with an unstable rotation motion transfer between pushing disk and driven disk at the large disk rotation angle.