Industrial robots

The International Organization for Standardization gives a

definition of robot in ISO 8373: "an automatically controlled,
reprogrammable, multipurpose, manipulator programmable
in three or more axes, which may be either fixed in place or
mobile for use in industrial automation applications." This
definition is used by the International Federation of Robotics
, the European Robotics Research Network (EURON), and
many national standards committees.

"A robot is a reprogrammable, multi-functional manipulator

designed to move material, parts, tools, or specialized devices
through variable programmed motions for the performance of a
variety of tasks." (Robotics Institute of America)
• Fanuc Robotics (Japan)
• Kuka (Germany)
• ABB (1988 through merger of ASEA of Sweden
and Brown, Boveri & Cie of Switzerland)
• Stäubli (Switzerland)
• Adept  (USA)
• Yskawa Motorman (Japan)
Robots are used in almost any industry
where repetitive tasks are involved, or
the task is difficult manually, or
dangerous, such as
 welding, painting, or surface finishing in the
aerospace or automotive industries
 electronics and consumer products assembly
and inspection inspection of parts by robot
assisted sensors or in the form of a Coordinate
Measurement Machine (CMM)
 underwater and space exploration
hazardous waste remediation in
 Cartesian or gantry robot: Cartesian robots have
three linear joints that use the Cartesian coordinate system (X, Y, and Z).
They also may have an attached wrist to allow for rotational movement.
The three prismatic joints deliver a linear motion along the axis.
 Cylindrical robot : The robot has at least one rotary joint
at the base and at least one prismatic joint to connect the links. The rotary
joint uses a rotational motion along the joint axis, while the prismatic joint
moves in a linear motion. Cylindrical robots operate within a cylindrical-
shaped work envelope.
 Spherical Robot
 Scara : Commonly used in assembly application, this selectively
compliant arm assembly is primarily cylindrical in design. It features two
parallel joints that provide compliance in one selected plane.
 Articulate: All joints are revolute. Most industrial robots are of
this type.
 Parallel Link: example Stewart’s platform, spider from Adept
Cartesian (PPP)
Cylindrical (RPP)

Spherical
(RRP) Spherical (RRP)
 Robot consists of rigid links
connected to one another by
joints which allow relative motion
of neighboring links
 Links
 Joints
 Prismatic: Sliding joint
 Revolute: rotation
 End effector:
A the free end of the link chain
(normaly wrist) is the end-effector.
 Gripper
 Welding torch
 Electro magnet
 Or any other tool
 Payload is the maximum load the
that robot can carry with out
compromising its speed and
accuracy.
 Always specified at some distance
from wrist.
 Auxiliary payload:
 The load which can be put on other
arms
 Normally much higher then actual
 Number of independent variables
used to define the configuration of
the robot
 Number of motors used gives the dof of
robot
 In 3-D space the robot must have 6 dof
to position and orient the tool
▪ 3-dof for positioning
▪ Another 3-dof for orientation of the tool
 Two types of work volume
 Dextrous : is that volume of space
which the robot end-effector can reach
with all orientation
 Reachable work volume: that volume of
space which the robot can reach with at
least one orientation
A taught point is one that the
robot is moved to physically, and
then the joint position
recorded/stored
 Points are taught using teach
pendent
 Repeatability is the precision by
which the robot can be positioned at
its taught point
 The precision with which the
computed points can be attained is
called accuracy.
 Computed point are points which
the robot has to reach but were
never taught to it. For example point
coming from camera or directly
programmed
 Accuracy is lower bounded by
repeatability
 Accuracy is affected by the precision of
 Real time
 i/o cards (analog and digital) can be attached
to robot controller
 i/o signals are read in real time and action
taken
 There is a upper limit to the maximum number
of i/o the robot can access
 Non-real time
 Cannot be used to generate interrupts
 Cannot be used modify the motion all ready
started
 OPC, serial communication etc, (manufacturer
dependent)
 Theorientation of an object can be
defined by attaching a coordinate
system to the object and then
describing it with respect to some
reference coordinate system
 Tool coordinate system
 attached to the tool or end effector
 Wrist coordinate system
 Attached to the wrist of the robot. Fixed during
manufacturing. Tool C.S is defined w.r.t this
 Base coordinate system
 Attached to the work piece or table etc
 Global / world coordinate system
 A fixed coordinate system w.r.t the robot. All
other coordinate system gets calibrated with
respect to this.

 Translation: when origin one
coordinate system (C.S.) is
displaced w.r.t a ref. C.S. The axis
remain parallel
 Rotation: When one C.S. is rotated
about any axis in some ref. C.S. This
is described by a 3x3 rotation
matrix.
 Transformation = rotation and
translation
 Tocompletely describe a tool with
respect to some C.S we need to
know both the
 Position of the origin of tool C.S
 And Orientation of the tool C.S
 Frame includes both position and
orientation of an object
 Mapping between frames is carried
out using Homogeneous
transformation. It is a 4X4 matrix
 Roll pitch yaw
Start with the frame {B} coincident with a known referance frame
{A}.First rotate {b} about X̂ A by an angle γ , then about ŶA
by an angle β . and then rotate about Ẑ A by an angle α
  Z-Y-X Eural angle
Start with frame {B} consident with known frame {A}.
First rotate {B} about Ẑ B by an angle α , then rotate
about ŶB by an angle β , and the rotate about X̂ B by angle γ

 Z-Y-Z Eular angle

Start with frame {B} consident with known frame {A}.
First rotate {B} about Ẑ B by an angle α , then rotate
about ŶB by an angle β , and the rotate about Ẑ B by angle γ
 Equivalent angle axis
Start with frame {B} consident with known frame {A}.
First rotate {B} about a vector A K̂ by an angle θ , according to the right hand
rule
 Forward kinematics
 Given the joint find the configuration
(orientation + position) of the Tool
Coordinate Point (TCP) w.r.t world or
base frame
 Solution easy
 Use in coordinate measuring machine
 Inverse kinematics
 Given the configuration of TCP find the
joint angle
A system is solvable if some algorithm
exist to find all joint angles, given the
end-effector position and orientation
 Equation are nonlinear- difficult to solve
 Multiple solutions may exist
 Method of solution
 Closed form solution
▪ Pieper showed that robots having 6dof and 3
consecutive intersect at a point can have closed
form solution
 Numerical solution
 For kinematic point a
link is described by
two attribute
 Link length “ai-1”
▪ Directed from axis “i-
1” to “i”
 Link twist “αi−1 “
▪ As per rigahd rule
thumb along “ai-1”
 Each link is
numbered starting
from zero for the
 When is “ai-1” not defined uniquely ?
 Axis intersects
 Axis are parallel
 When is “αi−1 “ not defined uniquely?

 Choose what ever suits you.

 When one link is
described w.r.t
another link two more
parameters come into
picture
 Link offset “di”
 Joint angle “θi”
 Either of to is variable
 Prismatic d is variable
 Revolute θ is variable
 These four parameter
ai-1, αi−1, di, θi is called
 “d”and “θ”
 What is the direction of “d” and θ
 Pointing from axis “i-1” to “I”
 For θ use right hand rule

Now will fix coordinate system to each link

 Axis specific motion
 PTP the fastest motion
 Path related motions
 Linear
 Circular
 Spline
Multiple solution is a problem
for PTP motion only
 How multiple solution is help full ?
 Obstacle avoidance
 Occurs only in case of PTP motion
 Orientation control:
 The orientation of a tool can be different at the start
point and end point of a motion. There are several
different types of transition from the start orientation
to the end orientation.
 Types of control
 Slandered
 Wrist PTP
 constant
 The orientation of the tool changes continuously during
the motion. The orientation is achieved by rotating and
pivoting about the TCP.
 The CP motion is broken down into several
small PTP motions by the robot controller.
 This excludes the possibility of a singularity
occurring in the case of Wrist PTP. The robot
can deviate slightly from its path,
however.
 Wrist PTP not suitable if the robot must
follow its path exactly, e.g. in the case of laser
welding.
 The orientation of tool remains
constant
 Start position orientation is fixed
 End position orientation is
disregarded
 Needs 3 points
 Draws only half circle (specific to
KUKA)
 Singularity comes from matrix
inversion
 one to one correspondence between
joint C.S and Cartesian C.S. is lot
 Singularity is a configuration of the
robot
 One or more degree of freedom is
lost
 Small change in Cartesian
coordinate results in large change
 Forarticulate 6 dof robot 3 types of
singularity exists ( for example KukaR6)
 Overhead: the wrist root point (intersection of axes A4,
A5 andA6) is located vertically above axis 1.
 Extended: the wrist root point (intersection of axes A4, A5
and A6) is located in the extension of axes A2 and A3 of the
robot. The robot is at its limit of work volume
 Wrist :In the wrist axis singularity position, the axes
A4 and A6 are parallel to one another and axis A5 is within the
range ±0.01812°
 Itis a multidimensional form of
derivative
 Relates joint velocity with Cartesian co-
ordinate.
 It is square matrix called J
 J is a function of joint angles
 When the Jacobian becomes singular i.e.
det(J) = 0, under certain configuration
the, the robot is said to be in singular
position
 SCARA Robot Kinematics
 A 4-axis SCARA (Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm) robot
has parallel shoulder, elbow, and wrist rotary joints, and a linear
vertical axis through the center of rotation of the wrist. This type
of manipulator is very common in light-duty applications such as
electronic assembly.
 Mechanism Description
 In this example, the upper-arm length (L ) is 400 mm, and the
1

lower-arm length (L ) is 300 mm. The shoulder joint (S), the

2

elbow joint (E), and the wrist joint (W) have resolutions of
1000 counts per degree. Rotation in the positive direction for
all 3 joints is counter-clockwise when viewed from the top.
The vertical axis (V) has a resolution of 100 counts per
millimeter, and movement in the positive direction goes up.
When the shoulder, elbow, and wrist joints are at their zero-
degree positions, the two links are both extended along the X-
axis and the tool orientation C is at zero degrees. When the
vertical axis is at its home position, it is 250 mm above the Z-
axis zero point. Due to wiring constraints, rollover of the
rotary axes is not permitted.

 Forward Kinematics
 Inverse Kinematics
 Limiting ourselves to positive values of the elbow (E) angle, producing
the right-armed case (done by selecting the positive arc-cosine
solutions), we can write our inverse kinematic equations as follows:
 Velocity of tool point w.r.t joint speed
x = −{L1 sin( S ) + L2 sin( S + E )}S − L2 sin( S + E ) E
y = {L cos( S ) + L cos( S + E )}S + L cos( S + E ) E
1 2 2

C = S + E + W
z = V
Or in matrix form
 x  − L1 sin( S ) − L2 sin( S + E ) − L2 sin( S + E ) 0 0  S 
 y   L cos( S ) + L cos( S + E ) L cos( S + E )  
 = 1 2 2 0 0  E  ⇒ J = L1 L2 Sin( E )
*
 c   1 1 1 0 W 
     
 z   0 0 0 1  V  Singulatity when J = 0
− L1 sin( S ) − L2 sin( S + E ) − L2 sin( S + E ) 0 0
 L cos( S ) + L cos( S + E ) L cos( S + E ) 0 0 ⇒E=0
J = 1 2 2

 1 1 1 0
 
 0 0 0 1