Mechanism Design and Trajectory Planning of a Redundantly Actuated Parallel Robotfor Jaw Movement

In view of the redundancy feature of the jaw system and the uniqueness of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) movement, a new prototype of redundant parallel robotic mechanism for jaw movement is presented to reproduce human jaw motion. Firstly, a prototype of the robot for jaw movement is designed according to the mechanism of human jaw movement and the data of bionic design. Then, the trajectory of the redundantly actuated parallel robot for jaw movement is planned using the virtual simulation software. Finally, the mandible functional motion is experimented on the prototype, including opening and closing movement, front-to-back movement and sideways movement. The results prove that this jaw movement robot can realize the human mandible motion, especially the TMJ motion.