Final Lecture

Manipulators

Definition?

Advantages & Applications of Manipulators

Common Architectures in Manipulators

Selection of Suitable Architectures:
– Asses the performance in terms of work
space
– Selection of different parameters

Derived from the course of Dr Philippe Wenger

Manipulators

Definition:
– A Manipulator is an Industrial robot which is general purpose and
has some anthropomorphic characteristics
– The most common anthropomorphic characteristic of a
manipulator are:

Its Mechanical Arm, which is used to perform industrial tasks

Capability to respond to sensory inputs

Communicate with other Machines and make decisions

– Manipulators can further be divided into two main categories

mentioned below:

Serial Manipulators

Parallel Manipulators
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Applications & Advantages:
General advantages which promote the usage of Manipulators are
mentioned below:
– Hazardous Environments:

Applications such as Die Casting, Forging, Spray Painting, Arc
Welding can be considered Hazardous as they can cause injuries
thus robots can be utilized in all these processes
– Handling of Heavy Materials:

If the task involves lifting of heavy materials which in general are
difficult to manipulate industrial robots can be used to perform these
operations

– Repetitive Work Cycles:

A specific characteristic which tends to promote usage of
Manipulators are their consistency and repeatability in performing
tasks and following required trajectories
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– Infrequent change over (Batch Production):

Some operations don’t require much change over after creation of a
part (such as mass or batch production), in such cases Industrial
robots are ideal as they can increase the production rates due to their
consistency.

– Part position and orientation are fixed:

Certain Robots used in industrial application are with out vision
capabilities thus they are ideal for situations where the position and
orientation of part is known (such as pick and place operations)

However the introduction of vision based capabilities makes their
applications multi facet

– Some major applications of Industrial Robots are:

Material Handling

Assembly and Inspection

Processing Operations (Spray Painting, Spot welding)
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Efficiency of a Manipulator (Serial Manipulator):
– The Efficiency of a manipulator is dependent on the following
factors:

Its Kinematic architecture must be suited to the work in hand

The robot must be placed at a suitable position (Workspace analysis)

– All of these issues will be addressed briefly in the next few slides

– The workspace analysis of the robot will be enumerated for cases

in which an obstacle is present or not
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Kinematic Architecture of Serial Manipulators:
– The architecture is dependent on the following factors:

Number of actuated joints

Types of joints (Revolute or Prismatic)

Angles between Joint Variables

Link Lengths

Joint Offsets

– The Numbers of actuated joints along with its types and angles
define the class of a robot
– The most commonly used classes of robot in the industry are
mentioned below:

Anthropomorphic Robots

SCARA Robots

Cartesian Robots (also called Gantry Robots)
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Kinematic Architecture of Serial Manipulators:
– Anthropomorphic Robots:

The general characteristics are mentioned below:
– All Revolute Joints
– Joint 1 and Joint 2 are orthogonal
– Joint 2 and Joint 3 are parallel
– 3 axis Spherical Wrist mounted at the end

Anthropomorphic robots are termed as General Purpose robots which
can be used for many applications (Welding, Painting etc)
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Kinematic Architecture of Serial Manipulators:
– SCARA Robots:

SCARA stands for Selective Compliant Assembly Robot Arm

Certain characteristics of the robot are mentioned below:
– 4 Axis all parallel
– Three revolute joints
– 1 Prismatic Joint

One of the main applications of SCARA

robots is in Pick and Place operations in
the industry

It is also frequently used in the

Microprocessor process industry to drill
holes in the Printed Circuit Boards
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Kinematic Architecture of Serial Manipulators:
– An alternative to SCARA Robot:
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Kinematic Architecture of Serial Manipulators:
– Cartesian Robots:

Ideal for Pick and Place operations for Heavy Objects

General characteristics are mentioned below:
– 3 Axis which are orthogonal to each other
– Generally followed by a Spherical Wrist
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Kinematic Architecture of Serial Manipulators:
– Some Old architectures of Robots are mentioned below:

Spherical Cylindrical
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Link Lengths and Joint Offsets:
– Robots belonging to the same class can have different link lengths and
joint offsets
– These two characteristics greatly influence the Effective workspace of the
manipulator
– The diagram below shows two robot belonging to same class but with
joint offsets

What Effect would this have on the performance?

Manipulators

Technological Requirements while selecting Robots & Architectures:
– Industrial Application for which they are to be used (Pick & Place,
Welding)
– Payload (mass to be handled)

– Robot Mass and Size

– Actuation (Electric, Pneumatic or Hydraulic)

– Maximal Speed & Acceleration

– Joint Limits

– Motion Control (Point to Point or linear interpolation)

– Security (e.g Collision Detection)

– Operation Environment (such as Painting, polishing or Grinding
environments are harsh, where as clean robots such as food industry,
hospitals are different)
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Choosing Parameters based on Technological

Requirements/Task in Hand:
– Rules for Determining the Maximum Reach of a Robot:

For any specific task if the maximum reach of the robot (Dm) is less
then 3 meters select a Robot (Anthropomorphic, SCARA etc) whose
reach is at least Dm

If the maximum reach of the robot for any specific task is greater then
3m then choose a Cartesian Robot or put a linear axis on the robot

– Determining the number of Actuated Joints:

Determining the number of actuated joints can be divided into two
categories:
– If there is no obstacle in the work space, Number of Actuated Joints (n) is
equal to the task space (m)
n=m
Manipulators

Choosing Parameters based on Technological

Requirements/Task in Hand:
– Determining the Number of Actuated Joints:

Obstacle obstructs the robots environment, Number of actuated joint
(n) is greater then dimension of task space (m)
n>m

The two joints are insufficient no matter the

link lengths
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Choosing Parameters based on Technological

Requirements/Task in Hand:
– Determining the Number of Actuated Joints:

Concept of redundant robots (7 DOF) to increase dexterity
Manipulators

Choosing Parameters based on Technological

Requirements/Task in Hand:
– Determine the type of Actuated Joints:

Defining the architecture of the robot (SCARA, Cartesian,
Anthropomorphic)

Basic Rules:
– Anthropomorphic robots equipped with a 3 DOF Spherical Wrist are
called general purpose robots, thus they can be used for almost any task

– SCARA robots are intended for quick pick and place displacements of
light objects over small distances (Food industry, Electronic Industry)

They are very accurate, rapid and cheap

– Cartesian Robots are used to move heavy objects from place to place,
but they are slow in general
Manipulators

Choosing Parameters based on Technological

Requirements/Task in Hand:
– Determine the type of Actuated Joints:

Exceptions -> cases in which the shape of objects are unique,
in such cases on generic rule applies, and depends upon the
task at hand
Manipulators

Choosing Parameters based on Technological

Requirements/Task in Hand:
– Determining the link lengths/offsets:

The total link length must be equal to the maximal reach of the
manipulator

A generic discussion for 2 DOF planar robot of using equal link
lengths compared to different link lengths is given below:
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General Constraints during Robot Design:

– Joint Limits

– Obstacles (Geometric Constraint)

– Singularities (Kinematics Constraint)

– Tracking a continuous path (Kinematics Constraint)

– Moving with prescribed velocities & Accelerations (Dynamic

Constraint)
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Assessing Geometric & Kinematic Performances of a Robot (Work
Space analysis):
– As was the case in CNC machines there are two types of tasks for the
robot:

Point to Point Motions (Pick & Place, Spot Welding etc)

Motion along prescribed paths (Painting, Arc Welding etc)

– Thus two main factors need to be assessed:

Ability of a robot to reach prescribed poses

Ability of a robot to track prescribed poses

– Accessibility of a Manipulator:

Ability of a robot to partially or fully align a reference frame (Re) to a target
frame (Rc)

There are several levels of accessibility:
– Full Accessibility
– Accessible in Position only
– Partial Accessibility
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Full Accessibility:
– Full alignment of two frames possible for robots with at least 6 DOF
– Thus full accessibility specifies position as well as Orientation alignment
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Accessibility in Position:
– Coincidence of Origins of the frames of reference but the orientation is
ignored
– Important in case of certain industrial applications (Bulk packing or
dropping)
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Partial Accessibility:
– Coincidence of certain position and orientation coordinates
– Important in case of certain industrial applications such as Spot welding
etc
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Conditions of Accessibility:
– There are three basic conditions which are required for a pose X to be
accessible:
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Causes of Non Accessibility:
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Plotting the Workspace of a Robot:
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