This paper presents a new passive gravity -compensating system for articulated robot manipulators. The system, which consists of linear zero- free -length springs, achieves exact counterbalancing o f the gravitational loads throughout the entire range of the manipulator workspace, A basic concept is to design springs such that the total potential energy of the system including the manipulator and the springs should be maintained constant. A prototype has been developed for a direct-drive five-bar manipulator and its performances have been investigated. Results show that the gravity-induced motor torques have been reduced to less than 5% of those of uncompensated robots. Also, the gravity-compensating system simplifies the position control algorithm while maintaining the trajectory-tracking errors in a satisfactory level. In conclusion, the proposed system efficiently improves the manipulator performances by reducing the driving motor size and the energy consumption as well as by simplifying the control systems.