This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Wunderlich, J. T. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Simulating a Robotic Arm in a Box: Redundant Kinematics, Path Planning, and Rapid Prototyping for Enclosed Spaces

Elizabethtown College, Computer Science and Computer Engineering Programs, Elizabethtown, PA 17022, wunderjt{at}etown.edu

Robotic arms often perform industrial tasks requiring complex dextrous manipulation within constrained spaces. For example, automobile unibody assembly can require more than 5000 welds, with many performed within the vehicle’s interior. An arm can be designed specifically for this type of task by permuting link lengths and degrees of freedom (DOF) to find a set of feasible designs. Each design can be evaluated for joint-angle displacement, dexterity, simulated speed, and consumption of available redundancy. A heuristic search increases the probability of having the needed kinematic structure. Hyperredundant designs of up to 10 DOF can be created, and searches often yield minimized-DOF designs. The path-planning technique combines pseudo-inverse velocity control with the concept of attractive poles to allow maneuvering through complex enclosures while avoiding many obstacles. This research provides a means of rapid-prototyping robotic arms for enclosed spaces and can yield many designs locally optimized for given tasks and environments.

Key Words: Robotic arms • simulation • rapid prototyping • path planning

References

• [1] National Research Council. 1992. Dispelling the manufacturing myth: American factories can compete in the global marketplace. Washington, DC: National Academy Press .
• [2] Nof, S. Y. 1999. Handbook of industrial robots. 2d ed. New York: John Wiley .
• [3] TWI World Center for Materials Joining Technology. 2004. TWI image library. Retrieved from www.twi.co.uk/j32k/unprotected/band_1/imglb013.html
• [4] Greville, T. N. E. 1959. The pseudoinverse of a rectangular or singular matrix and its applications to the solutions of systems of linear equations . SIAM Review 1 (1): 38-43 .
• [5] Nakamura, Y., and H. Hanafusa. 1984. Singularity low-sensitive motion resolution of articulated robot arms . Transactions of the Society of Instrument and Control Engineers 20 (5): 453-459 .
• [6] Hanafusa, H., T. Yoshikawa, and Y. Nakamura. 1981. Analysis and control of articulated robot arms with redundancy . In Proceedings of the IFAC Control Science and Technology 8th Triennial World Congress.
• [7] Nakamura, Y., H. Hanafusa, and T. Yoshikawa. 1987. Task-priority based redundancy control of robot manipulators . International Journal of Robotics Research 6 (2): 3-15 .[Abstract/Free Full Text]
• [8] Maciejewski, A. A., and C. A. Klein. 1985. Obstacle avoidance for kinematically redundant manipulators in dynamic varying environments . International Journal of Robotics Research 4 (3): 109-117 .[Abstract/Free Full Text]
• [9] Nemac, B., L. Zlajpah, and D. Omrcen. 2003. Stability of null space control algorithms . In Proceedings of the RAAD’03 Int. Workshop on Robotics, Alpe-Adria-Danube region, Cassino.
• [10] English, J. D., and A. A. Maciejewski. 2000. On the implementation of velocity control for kinematically redundant manipulators . IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics 30 (3): 233-237 .[CrossRef]
• [11] Wunderlich, J. T. 2004. Design of a welding arm for unibody automobile assembly . In Proceedings of the IMG04 International Conference on Intelligent Manipulation and Grasping, Genoa, Italy.
• [12] Wunderlich, J.T., and C.G. Boncelet. 1996. Local optimization of redundant manipulator kinematics within constrained workspaces . In Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Minneapolis, MN.
• [13] Wunderlich, J. T. 1996. Optimal kinematic design of redundant and hyper-redundant manipulators for constrained workspaces. Ph.D. diss., University of Delaware.
• [14] Khatib, O. 1985. Real-time obstacle avoidance for manipulators and mobile robots . In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.
• [15] Chirikjian, G. S., and J. W. Burdick. 1990. An obstacle avoidance algorithm for hyper-redundant manipulators . In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.
• [16] Li, T. Y., and H. C. Chou. 2003. Motion planning for a crowd of robots . In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.
• [17] Barraquand, J., and J. Latombe. 1991. Robot motion planning: A distributed representation approach . International Journal of Robotics Research 10: 628-649 .[Abstract/Free Full Text]
• [18] Kavaki, J., P. Svestka, J. Latombe, and M. Overmars. 1996. Probabilistic roadmaps for fast path planning in high-dimensional configuration spaces . IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation 12: 566-580 .[CrossRef][Web of Science]
• [19] Nakamura, Y. 1991. Advanced robotics: Redundancy and automation. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley .
• [20] Hollerbach, J. M. 1988. Optimum kinematic design for a seven degree of freedom manipulator . In Proceedings of the International Symposium of Robotics Research.
• [21] Shiller, Z., and S. Sundar. 1991. Design of robotic manipulators for optimal dynamic performance . In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.
• [22] Mayorga, R. V., B. Ressa, and A. K. C. Wong. 1991. A kinematic criterion for the design optimization of robot manipulators . In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.
• [23] Paredis, J. J., and P. K. Khosia. 1993. Kinematic design of serial link manipulators from task specifications . International Journal of Robotics Research 12 (3): 274-287 .[Abstract/Free Full Text]
• [24] Chirikjian, G. S., and J. W. Burdick. 1991. Parallel formulation of the inverse kinematics of modular hyper-redundant manipulators . In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.
• [25] Yoshikawa, T. 1984. Manipulablity of robotic mechanisms . International Journal of Robotics Research 4 (2): 3-9 .
• [26] Park, F. C., and R. W. Brockett. 1994. Kinematic dexterity of robotic mechanisms . International Journal of Robotics Research 13 (1): 1-15 .[Abstract/Free Full Text]
• [27] Doty, K. L., C. Melchiorri, E. M. Schwartz, and C. Bonivento. 1995. Robot manipulability . IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation 11 (3): 462-468 .[CrossRef]
• [28] Kim, J., G. Marani, W. K. Chung, and J. Yuh. 2002. Kinematic singularity avoidance for autonomous manipulation under water . In Proceedings of PACOMS-2002.
• [29] Theingi, I.-M.Chen, C. Li, and J. Angeles. 2003. Managing singularities of 3-DOF planar parallel manipulators using joint-coupling . In Proceedings of the 11th World Congress in Mechanical and Machine Science, Tianjin, China.
• [30] Kim, D., and W. Chung. 1999. Analytic singularity equation and analysis of six-DOF parallel manipulators using local structurization method . IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation 15 (4): 612-622 .[CrossRef]
• [31] Wampler, C. W. 1986. Manipulator inverse kinematic solutions based on vector formulations and damped least-squares methods . IEEE Transactions on Man-Machine Systems 16 (1): 93-101 .

SIMULATION, Vol. 80, No. 6, 301-316 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/0037549704046338


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Wunderlich, J. T. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?