Patent ID: 7654595

Claim:
A multi-joint drive mechanism comprising: a flat-plate bone-member layer member in which a plurality of flat plate bone members are arranged in arrays, each of the flat plate bone members having at least one recessed portion, the plurality of bone members being movably coupled at coupling portions, the coupling portions comprising flat plates; and elastic members which are arranged so as to stretch over the coupling portions on at least one of a contact-surface side of the bone-member layer member that is to make contact with an object and a noncontact-surface side of the bone-member layer member opposed to the contact-surface side, the elastic members being fitted into the recessed portions of adjacent ones of the bone members so as to be fixed to the adjacent ones of the bone members, the elastic members being capable of being elastically expanded and contracted, wherein the multi-joint drive mechanism is operable to drive flexural motions with the coupling portions between adjoining bone members serving as joints by expanding or contracting the elastic members, and the multi-joint drive mechanism has a layer structure in which at least the flat-plate bone-member layer member and the elastic members are arranged in a planar fashion.