Clearance-Induced Position Uncertainty of Planar Linkages and Parallel Manipulators

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kwun-Lon Ting ◽  
Kuan-Lun Hsu ◽  
Jun Wang

The paper presents a simple and effective kinematic model and methodology to assess and evaluate the extent of the position uncertainty caused by joint clearances for multiple-loop linkage and manipulators connected with revolute or prismatic pairs. The model is derived and explained with geometric rigor based on Ting's rotatability laws. The significant contributions include (1) the clearance link model for a P-joint that catches the translation and oscillation characteristics of the slider within the clearance and separates the geometric effect of clearances from the input error, (2) the generality of the method, which is effective for multiloop linkages and parallel manipulators, and (3) settling the dispute on the position uncertainty effect to parallel and serial robots due to joint clearance. The discussion is illustrated and carried out through symmetrically configured planar 8 bar parallel robots. It is found that at a target position, the uncertainty region of a three degrees-of-freedom (DOF) three-leg parallel robot is enclosed by a hexagon with curve edges, while that of its serial counterpart is enclosed by a circle included in the hexagon. A numerical example is presented. The finding and proof, though only based on three-leg planar 8 bar parallel robots, may have a wider implication suggesting that based on the kinematic effect of joint clearance, parallel robots tends to inherit more position uncertainty than their serial counterparts. The use of more loops in not only parallel robots but also single-DOF linkages cannot fully offset the adverse effect on position uncertainty caused by the use of more joints.

Author(s):  
Kwun-Lon Ting ◽  
Kuan-Lun Hsu

The paper presents a simple and effective kinematic model and methodology, based on Ting’s N-bar rotatability laws [2629], to assess the extent of the position uncertainty caused by joint clearances for any linkage and manipulators connected with revolute or prismatic pairs. The model is derived and explained with geometric rigor based on Ting’s rotatability laws. The significant contribution includes (1) the clearance link model for P-joint that catches the translation and oscillation characteristics of the slider within the clearance and separates the geometric effect of clearance from the input error, (2) a simple uncertainty linkage model that features a deterministic instantaneous structure mounted on non-deterministic flexible legs, (3) the generality of the method, which is effective for multiloop linkages and parallel manipulators. The discussion is carried out through symmetrically constructed planar eight-bar parallel robots. It is found that the uncertainty region of a three-leg parallel robot is enclosed by a hexagon, while that of its serial counterpart is enclosed by a circle inscribed by the hexagon. A numerical example is also presented. The finding and proof, though only based on three-leg planar 8-bar parallel robots, may have a wider implication suggesting that based on kinematics, parallel robots tends to inherit more position uncertainty than their serial counterparts. The use of more loops in parallel robots cannot fully offset the adverse effect on position uncertainty caused by the use of more joints.


Author(s):  
Saeed Behzadipour ◽  
Robert Dekker ◽  
Amir Khajepour ◽  
Edmon Chan

The growing needs for high speed positioning devices in the automated manufacturing industry have been challenged by robotic science for more than two decades. Parallel manipulators have been widely used for this purpose due to their advantage of lower moving inertia over the conventional serial manipulators. Cable actuated parallel robots were introduced in 1980’s to reduce the moving inertia even further. In this work, a new cable-based parallel robot is introduced. For this robot, the cables are used not only to actuate the end-effector but also to apply the necessary kinematic constraints to provide three pure translational degrees of freedom. In order to maintain tension in the cables, a passive air cylinder is used to push the end-effector against the stationary platform. In addition to low moving inertia, the new design benefits from simplicity and low manufacturing cost by eliminating joints from the robot’s mechanism. The design procedure and the results of experiments will be discussed in the following.


Robotics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moritz Schappler ◽  
Svenja Tappe ◽  
Tobias Ortmaier

Industrial manipulators and parallel robots are often used for tasks, such as drilling or milling, that require three translational, but only two rotational degrees of freedom (“3T2R”). While kinematic models for specific mechanisms for these tasks exist, a general kinematic model for parallel robots is still missing. This paper presents the definition of the rotational component of kinematic constraints equations for parallel robots based on two reciprocal sets of Euler angles for the end-effector orientation and the orientation residual. The method allows completely removing the redundant coordinate in 3T2R tasks and to solve the inverse kinematics for general serial and parallel robots with the gradient descent algorithm. The functional redundancy of robots with full mobility is exploited using nullspace projection.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Li ◽  
Deyong Shang ◽  
Xun Fan ◽  
Yue Liu

Delta parallel robots are widely used in assembly detection, packaging sorting, precision positioning, and other fields. With the widespread use of robots, people have increasing requirements for motion accuracy and reliability. This paper considers the influence of various mechanism errors on the motion accuracy and analyzes the motion reliability of the mechanism. Firstly, we establish a kinematic model of the robot and obtain the relationship between the position of the end effector and the structural parameters based on the improved D–H transform rule. Secondly, an error model considering the dimension error, the error of revolute joint clearance, driving error, and the error of spherical joint clearance is established. Finally, taking an actual robot as an example, the comprehensive influence of mechanism errors on motion accuracy and reliability in different directions is quantitatively analyzed. It is shown that the driving error is a key factor determining the motion accuracy and reliability. The influence of mechanism errors on motion reliability is different in different directions. The influence of mechanism errors on reliability is small in the vertical direction, while it is great in the horizontal direction. Therefore, we should strictly control the mechanism errors, especially the driving angle, to ensure the motion accuracy and reliability. This research has significance for error compensation, motion reliability analysis, and reliability prediction in robots, and the conclusions can be extended to similar mechanisms.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 172988141880384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonqlan Lin ◽  
Chi Ying Wu ◽  
Julian Chang

Cable-driven parallel robots comprise driven actuators that allow controlled cables to act in parallel on an end-effector. Such a robotic system has a potentially large reachable workspace, large load capacity, high payload-to-weight ratio, high reconfigurability, and low inertia, relative to rigid link serial and parallel robots. In this work, a multi-degrees-of-freedom cable-suspended robot that can carry out pick-and-place tasks in large workspaces with heavy loads is designed. The proposed cable-driven parallel robot is composed of a rigid frame and an end-effector that is suspended from eight cables—four upper cables and four lower cables. The lengths of the cables are computed from the given positions of the suspended end-effector using a kinematic model. However, most multi-cable-driven robots suffer from interference among the cables, requiring a complex control methodology to find a target goal. Owing to this issue with cable-driven parallel robots, the whole control structure decomposes positioning control missions and allocates them into upper level and lower level. The upper level control is responsible for tracking the suspended end-effector to the target region. The lower level control makes fine positional modifications. Experimental results reveal that the hybrid control mode notably improves positioning performance. The wide variety of issues that are considered in this work apply to aerostats, towing cranes, locomotion interfaces, and large-scale manufacturing that require cable-driven parallel robots.


Author(s):  
R. Jha ◽  
D. Chablat ◽  
F. Rouillier ◽  
G. Moroz

Trajectory planning is a critical step while programming the parallel manipulators in a robotic cell. The main problem arises when there exists a singular configuration between the two poses of the end-effectors while discretizing the path with a classical approach. This paper presents an algebraic method to check the feasibility of any given trajectories in the workspace. The solutions of the polynomial equations associated with the trajectories are projected in the joint space using Gröbner based elimination methods and the remaining equations are expressed in a parametric form where the articular variables are functions of time t unlike any numerical or discretization method. These formal computations allow to write the Jacobian of the manipulator as a function of time and to check if its determinant can vanish between two poses. Another benefit of this approach is to use a largest workspace with a more complex shape than a cube, cylinder or sphere. For the Orthoglide, a three degrees of freedom parallel robot, three different trajectories are used to illustrate this method.


Robotica ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 375-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sung Wook Hwang ◽  
Jeong-Hyeon Bak ◽  
Jonghyun Yoon ◽  
Jong Hyeon Park

SummaryCable-driven parallel robots (CDPRs) possess a lot of advantages over conventional parallel manipulators and link-based robot manipulators in terms of acceleration due to their low inertia. This paper deals with under-constrained CDPRs, which manipulate the end-effector to carrying the payload by using a number of cables less than six, often used preferably owing to their simple structures. Since a smaller number of cables than six are used, the end-effector of CDPR has uncontrollable degrees of freedom and that causes swaying motion and oscillations. In this paper, a scheme to curb on the unwanted oscillation of the end-effector of the CDPR with three cables is proposed based on multimode input shaping. The precise dynamic model of the under-constrained CDPR is obtained to find natural frequencies, which depends on the position of the end-effector. The advantage of the proposed method is that it is practicable to generate the trajectories for vibration suppression based on multi-mode input-shaping scheme in spite of the complexity in the dynamics and the difficulty in computing the natural frequencies of the CDPR, which are required in any input-shaping scheme. To prove the effectiveness of the proposed method, computer simulations and experiments were carried out by using 3-D motion for CDPR with three cables.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amin Moosavian

The ability to vary the geometry of a wing to adapt to different flight conditions can significantly improve the performance of an aircraft. However, the realization of any morphing concept will typically be accompanied by major challenges. Specifically, the geometrical constraints that are imposed by the shape of the wing and the magnitude of the air and inertia loads make the usage of conventional mechanisms inefficient for morphing applications. Such restrictions have served as inspirations for the design of a modular morphing concept, referred to as the Variable Geometry Wing-box (VGW). The design for the VGW is based on a novel class of reconfigurable robots referred to as Parallel Robots with Enhanced Stiffness (PRES) which are presented in this dissertation. The underlying feature of these robots is the efficient exploitation of redundancies in parallel manipulators. There have been three categories identified in the literature to classify redundancies in parallel manipulators: 1) actuation redundancy, 2) kinematic redundancy, and 3) sensor redundancy. A fourth category is introduced here, referred to as 4) static redundancy. The latter entails several advantages traditionally associated only with actuation redundancy, most significant of which is enhanced stiffness and static characteristics, without any form of actuation redundancy. Additionally, the PRES uses the available redundancies to 1) control more Degrees of Freedom (DOFs) than there are actuators in the system, that is, under-actuate, and 2) provide multiple degrees of fault tolerance. Although the majority of the presented work has been tailored to accommodate the VGW, it can be applied to any comparable system, where enhanced stiffness or static characteristics may be desired without actuation redundancy. In addition to the kinematic and the kinetostatic analyses of the PRES, which are developed and presented in this dissertation along with several case-studies, an optimal motion control algorithm for minimum energy actuation is proposed. Furthermore, the optimal configuration design for the VGW is studied. The optimal configuration design problem is posed in two parts: 1) the optimal limb configuration, and 2) the optimal topological configuration. The former seeks the optimal design of the kinematic joints and links, while the latter seeks the minimal compliance solution to their placement within the design space. In addition to the static and kinematic criteria required for reconfigurability, practical design considerations such as fail-safe requirements and design for minimal aeroelastic impact have been included as constraints in the optimization process. The effectiveness of the proposed design, analysis, and optimization is demonstrated through simulation and a multi-module reconfigurable prototype.


2010 ◽  
Vol 166-167 ◽  
pp. 457-462
Author(s):  
Dan Verdes ◽  
Radu Balan ◽  
Máthé Koppány

Parallel robots find many applications in human-systems interaction, medical robots, rehabilitation, exoskeletons, to name a few. These applications are characterized by many imperatives, with robust precision and dynamic workspace computation as the two ultimate ones. This paper presents kinematic analysis, workspace, design and control to 3 degrees of freedom (DOF) parallel robots. Parallel robots have received considerable attention from both researchers and manufacturers over the past years because of their potential for high stiffness, low inertia and high speed capability. Therefore, the 3 DOF translation parallel robots provide high potential and good prospects for their practical implementation in human-systems interaction.


2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 164-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wanqiang Xi ◽  
Bai Chen ◽  
Yaoyao Wang ◽  
Feng Ju

For the synthesis of the required type about the multi-robot coordination system in industrial transportation, this paper presents a novel method in which each robot in the coordinated task is viewed as a branched chain of an equivalent parallel robot (EPR), which is converted into a problem for type synthesis of parallel robots. A theoretic method is proposed to represent the kinematic features of the mechanism’s end-effector and its position and pose in the world coordinate system. The basic concept of a robotic characteristic (C) set is given, and the corresponding algorithm is analyzed. Based on the theory of C set, the concrete steps for type synthesis of EPR are presented by analyzing the characteristics of its branched chains, and many EPR groups with end kinematic features for the C sets of the operational tasks are obtained. Then three translational (3T) operational requirements that can be extended to other degrees of freedom (DOF) are adopted, and the DOF of homogeneous and heterogeneous EPR are analyzed using screw theory. Finally the validation of the method is demonstrated by Adams, which shows that the two groups are able to complete the task.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document