Thermal Performance of a Multi-Axis Smoothing Cell

Multi Axis Robots have traditionally been used in industry for pick and place, de-burring, and welding operations. Increasing technological advances have broadened their application and today robots are increasingly being used for higher precision applications in the medical and nuclear sectors. In order to use robots in such roles it is important to understand their performance. Thermal effects in machine tools are acknowledged to account for up to 70% of all errors (Bryan J. , 1990) and therefore need to be considered. This research investigates thermal influences on the accuracy and repeatability of a six degree of freedom robotic arm, which forms an integral part of a smoothing cell. The cell forms part of a process chain currently being developed for the processing of high accuracy freeform surfaces, intended for use on the next generation of ground based telescopes. The robot studied was a FANUC 710i/50 with a lapping spindle the end effector. The robot geometric motions were characterised and the structure was thermally mapped at the latter velocity. The thermal mapping identified the key areas of the robot structure requiring more detailed analysis. Further investigation looked into thermal variations in conjunction with geometric measurements in order to characterise the robot thermal performance. Results showed thermal variations of up to 13ºC over a period of six hours, these produced errors of up to 100μm over the 1300mm working stroke slow. Thermal modelling carried out predicted geometric variation of 70μm to 122μm for thermal variations up to 13ºC over a period of six hours. The modelling was 50% to 75% efficient in predicting thermal error magnitudes in the X axis. With the geometric and modelling data a recommendation for offline compensation would enable significant improvement in the robots positioning capability to be achieved

Kinematic calibration of Orthoglide-type mechanisms from observation of parallel leg motions

The paper proposes a new calibration method for parallel manipulators that allows efficient identification of the joint offsets using observations of the manipulator leg parallelism with respect to the base surface. The method employs a simple and low-cost measuring system, which evaluates deviation of the leg location during motions that are assumed to preserve the leg parallelism for the nominal values of the manipulator parameters. Using the measured deviations, the developed algorithm estimates the joint offsets that are treated as the most essential parameters to be identified. The validity of the proposed calibration method and efficiency of the developed numerical algorithms are confirmed by experimental results. The sensitivity of the measurement methods and the calibration accuracy are also studied

Position Control of a 3-CPU Spherical Parallel Manipulator

The paper presents the first experimental results on the control of a prototypal robot designed for the orientation of parts or tools. The innovative machine is a spherical parallel manipulator actuated by 3 linear motors; several position control schemes have been tested and compared with the final aim of designing an interaction controller. The relative simplicity of machine kinematics allowed to test algorithms requiring the closed-loop evaluation of both inverse and direct kinematics; the compensation of gravitational terms has been experimented as well

Calibration of Parallel Kinematic Machines: theory and applications

Introduction As already stated in the chapter addressing the calibration of serial manipulators, kinematic calibration is a procedure for the identification and the consequent compensation of the geometrical pose errors of a robot. This chapter extends the discussion to Parallel Manipulators (also called PKM Parallel Kinematic Machines). As described in the following (Section 2) this extension is not obvious but requires special care. Although for serial manipulators some procedures for the calibration based on automatic generation of a MCPC (Minimum Complete Parametrically Continuos) model exist, for PKMs only methodologies for individual manipulators have been proposed but a general strategy has not been presented since now. A few examples of the numerous approaches for the calibration of individual PKMs are proposed in (Parenti-Castelli & Di Gregorio, 1995), (Jokiel et al., 2000) for direct calibration and (Neugebauer et al., 1999), (Smollett, 1996) for indirect or self calibration techniques. This paper makes one significant step integrating available results with new ones and reordering them in simple rules that can be automatically applied to any PKM with general kinematic chains. In all the cases a MCPC kinematic model for geometrical calibration is automatically obtained. In Section 2 the main features of PKMs calibration is pointed out and the total number of the necessary parameters is determined; this is an original contribution. In Sections 3 and 4 two novel approaches for the generation of a MCPC model are described. Sections 5 and 6 are dedicated to the analysis of the singular cases and to the procedure for the elimination of the redundant parameters respectively; actual cases are discussed. Section 7 presents several examples of application of the two proposed procedures to many existing PKMs. Section 8 eventually draws the conclusions

Parallel Manipulators

In recent years, parallel kinematics mechanisms have attracted a lot of attention from the academic and industrial communities due to potential applications not only as robot manipulators but also as machine tools. Generally, the criteria used to compare the performance of traditional serial robots and parallel robots are the workspace, the ratio between the payload and the robot mass, accuracy, and dynamic behaviour. In addition to the reduced coupling effect between joints, parallel robots bring the benefits of much higher payload-robot mass ratios, superior accuracy and greater stiffness; qualities which lead to better dynamic performance. The main drawback with parallel robots is the relatively small workspace. A great deal of research on parallel robots has been carried out worldwide, and a large number of parallel mechanism systems have been built for various applications, such as remote handling, machine tools, medical robots, simulators, micro-robots, and humanoid robots. This book opens a window to exceptional research and development work on parallel mechanisms contributed by authors from around the world. Through this window the reader can get a good view of current parallel robot research and applications

Modèles élastiques et élasto‐dynamiques de robots porteurs

The report presents an advanced stiffness modeling technique for parallel manipulators composed of perfect and non-perfect serial chains. The developed technique contributes both to the stiffness modeling of serial and parallel manipulators under internal and external loadings. Particular attention has been done to enhancement of VJM-based stiffness modeling technique for the case of auxiliary loading (applied to the intermediate points). The obtained results allows us to take into account gravity forces induced by the link weights which are assumed to be applied in the intermediate points. In contrast to other works, the developed technique is able to take into account deviation of the end-platform location because of inaccuracy in the geometry of serial chains, which does not allow to assemble manipulator without internal stresses. The developed aggregation procedure combines the chain stiffness models and produces the relevant force-deflection relation, the aggregated Cartesian stiffness matrix and the reference point displacements caused by inaccuracy in kinematic chains. The developed technique can be applied to both over-constrained and under-constrained manipulators, and is suitable for the cases of both small and large deflections.ANR COROUSS

An Overview of Kinematic and Calibration Models Using Internal/External Sensors or Constraints to Improve the Behavior of Spatial Parallel Mechanisms

This paper presents an overview of the literature on kinematic and calibration models of parallel mechanisms, the influence of sensors in the mechanism accuracy and parallel mechanisms used as sensors. The most relevant classifications to obtain and solve kinematic models and to identify geometric and non-geometric parameters in the calibration of parallel robots are discussed, examining the advantages and disadvantages of each method, presenting new trends and identifying unsolved problems. This overview tries to answer and show the solutions developed by the most up-to-date research to some of the most frequent questions that appear in the modelling of a parallel mechanism, such as how to measure, the number of sensors and necessary configurations, the type and influence of errors or the number of necessary parameters

Kinematic Modeling, Linearization and First-Order Error Analysis

This chapter deals with a modular method for the kinematic analysis of parallel kinematic machines (PKM) at discrete points within their workspace. Firstly, a modular approach is presented for calculating the forward kinematic transmission function of some widely used parallel kinematic machines. This includes the well-known Stewart-Gough-platforms of general geometry, the Delta-robots, and parallel machines with legs of constant length. The kinematic analysis is based on the kinetostatic method and permits to calculate the position, velocity, and acceleration transmission from the articulated joints towards the moveable platform of the machine. Furthermore, a force transmission is defined based on kinetostatic duality. By means of a simple numerical calculation schema, a comprehensive first-order sensitivity analysis is performed. Finally, it is shown how to set up the stiffness matrix for the aforementioned robots. Computational examples of the proposed algorithms are presented