ON THE DYNAMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF A REDESIGNED ROBOT

Abstract

A robotic manipulator is usually a very complicated system whose dynamics is too computationally time consuming for real-time control. The authors propose general criteria for designing an ideal robot whose dynamics is very much simpler than that of the conventional one. In this paper, dynamic characteristics of an ideally designed robot are investigated. The design guidelines were applied to a 6-degree-of-freedom PUMA 560 robot. Based upon the design concept dynamic equations of the redesigned robot were derived. Utilizing these equations, dynamic characteristics of the redesigned robot are investigated with respect to the computation efforts required, variation of the inertia matrix, joint input torque characteristics, and couplings between the joints. A detailed comparison study is also made between the redesigned and conventional robots.