As a new flexible rope transmission solution the structure and principle of the flexible rope transmission device was introduced firstly. Then the rope-tube mechanical model about interaction between rope and flexible tube was established. On the basis of the model, the factor affecting rope-tube transmission performance was studied especially coefficient of kinetic friction and Elastic modulus of flexible tube. After that, the design calculation method of flexible rope transmission was developed through the design calculation on rope-tube mechanical model. Lastly, a design example that a 6-DOF light-load serial robot equipped with three wrist joints based on flexible rope transmission was invented, and it performed well in application test. So, flexible rope transmission is a feasible transmission solution indeed, and may have broad prospects as well.
