Robohub.org
 

Delta robots are so yesterday — Here come the four-armed parallel robots


by
17 March 2014



share this:

X4 four-armed parallel robot developped at Tsinghua University Well, Delta robots may no longer be considered a novelty (at least the visitors of our robotics lab are no longer impressed by our FlexPicker), they are certainly here to stay. A new breed of four-armed parallel robots, however, starts to emerge. The first and best known member of this new family is the Quattro robot, introduced by Adept Technology in 2009, but several new examples are about to be launched. The main advantage of these new parallel robots is the elimination of the passive prismatic strut of 4-DOF Delta robots, which is the most problematic part in Delta robots.


Who said China can’t build original fine-quality parallel robots

While, so far, all Chinese robot manufacturers build standard six-axis industrial robots and conventional Delta robots, one of the top universities in China has just developped a novel four-armed parallel robot. Professor Xin-Jun Liu and his team from Tsinghua University (Beijing) patented and built one of the first pick-and-place parallel robots with four identical legs and unarticulated mobile platform, called the X4.


The X4 four-armed parallel robot developped at Tsinghua University
 

When I visited Professor Liu’s lab in 2010, I was particularly impressed with the number of collaborations he has with industry. He has developped a number of parallel kinematic machines (PKMs), but this is his first endevour in material handling. It is only a matter of time before this robot becomes available in industry, at least in China.

Europe is still where most pick-and-place robots originate from

Most know that the Delta robot was invented by the Swiss professor Reymond Clavel (now retired), but few probably know that the Quattro was the product of a collaboration between researchers from LIRMM in France and Fatronik in Spain. The next four-armed parallel robot to hit the market this summer was developped in the Netherlands by Penta Robotics. Their Veloce has the same arms as the Quattro and the X4, but features modular design and an articulated mobile platform.


The Veloce four-armed parallel robot developped by Penta Robotics




Ilian Bonev Ilian Bonev is professor at École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS) and holder of the Canada Research Chair in Precision Robotics.
Ilian Bonev Ilian Bonev is professor at École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS) and holder of the Canada Research Chair in Precision Robotics.





Related posts :



Robots to the rescue: miniature robots offer new hope for search and rescue operations

  09 Sep 2025
Small two-wheeled robots, equipped with high-tech sensors, will help to find survivors faster in the aftermath of disasters.

#IJCAI2025 distinguished paper: Combining MORL with restraining bolts to learn normative behaviour

and   04 Sep 2025
The authors introduce a framework for guiding reinforcement learning agents to comply with social, legal, and ethical norms.

Researchers are teaching robots to walk on Mars from the sand of New Mexico

  02 Sep 2025
Researchers are closer to equipping a dog-like robot to conduct science on the surface of Mars

Engineering fantasy into reality

  26 Aug 2025
PhD student Erik Ballesteros is building “Doc Ock” arms for future astronauts.

RoboCup@Work League: Interview with Christoph Steup

and   22 Aug 2025
Find out more about the RoboCup League focussed on industrial production systems.

Interview with Haimin Hu: Game-theoretic integration of safety, interaction and learning for human-centered autonomy

and   21 Aug 2025
Hear from Haimin in the latest in our series featuring the 2025 AAAI / ACM SIGAI Doctoral Consortium participants.

AIhub coffee corner: Agentic AI

  15 Aug 2025
The AIhub coffee corner captures the musings of AI experts over a short conversation.

Interview with Kate Candon: Leveraging explicit and implicit feedback in human-robot interactions

and   25 Jul 2025
Hear from PhD student Kate about her work on human-robot interactions.



 

Robohub is supported by:




Would you like to learn how to tell impactful stories about your robot or AI system?


scicomm
training the next generation of science communicators in robotics & AI


 












©2025.05 - Association for the Understanding of Artificial Intelligence