This paper details a study performed on a new proposed twelve degree-of-freedom dual robot arm, which is very light but capable of handling heavy loads. The proposed robot arm has a higher value for the ratio of the load capacity/robot weight than conventional robot arms, which are actuated by motors with speed reducers, such as a harmonic drives, since it adopts a new type of robot actuator based on a closed chain mechanism. Because of the high value of the ratio of the payload capacity/robot weight, it can be used as a robot arm for mobile robots and for walking robots. Analyses of the design scheme and of the mechanism of the joint actuator used for the robot arm are presented. Also, the control system developed for the robot arm is introduced. The superior characteristics of the new proposed robot arm, handling heavy payloads with light weight links compared to industrial robots, are presented through carrying out various payload capacity tests. Since the robot arm is designed with light links, it has some deflections and these deflections of the links are analyzed using the Finite Element Method (FEM). The results of performance tests are presented to check the correctness of the FEM analysis and to demonstrate the actual capability of handling heavy payloads applied to the robot arm.