Search Results (8)

At present, although there are many SCARA manipulator solutions with vertical lifting functionality, they generally suffer from high maintenance costs and complex structures. Moreover, systematic performance evaluations based on international standards are lacking, leading to unclear critical performance boundaries such as accuracy and payload in practical applications. To address these issues, this paper designs and manufactures a low-cost SCARA manipulator for educational and research demonstrations as well as light-duty electronic parts assembly scenarios. A “leadscrew + stepper motor” scheme is adopted for vertical lifting, and an Arduino Mega 2560 development board serves as the core controller, significantly reducing system cost. A three-dimensional model is established using SolidWorks 2022, and kinematic simulations are carried out with MATLAB 2024a to preliminarily verify the feasibility of the mechanism. Subsequently, a physical prototype is built and experimental tests are conducted in accordance with the ISO 9283 standard. The experimental results show that the repeatability of the manipulator is controlled within the range of 0.05–0.3 mm, the path deviation caused by vibration lies between −0.52 mm and 0.3 mm, and the maximum payload capacity is 3.91 N. These experimental data can serve as a benchmark for the design and performance comparison of similar low-cost manipulators. Full article

A photogrammetry-based error compensation solution, comprising calibration, positioning compensation and accuracy validation methodologies, is presented to the aerospace sector, able to assist industrial robots in manufacturing new composite materials, offering versatility and reconfigurability at a lower cost than that resulting from the currently used milling machines. Against a ground truth measured by a laser tracker, it has boosted, in real time, the accuracy level from ±0.685 to ±0.203 mm, on average, and from ±1.621 to ±0.498 mm at peak, following the ISO 9283 standard, and from ±0.534 to ±0.080 mm, on average, and from ±1.804 to ±0.456 mm at peak, with a real part in a large volume under industrial operating conditions, taking into account occlusions and showing robustness against the impact of the payload, the waviness, and the backlash. Full article

Robotic arms are used in a wide range of industrial and medical applications. However, for research and education, users often face a trade-off between costly commercial solutions with no adaptability and open-source alternatives that lack usability and functionality. In education, this problem is exacerbated by the prohibitive cost of commercial systems or simplifications that distort learning. Thus, we present HELENE, an open-source robot with six degrees of freedom, closed-loop position control, and robot operating system (ROS) integration. The modular design of the robot, printed on a commercial 3D printer, and its integrated custom electronics allow for easy customization for research purposes. The joints are driven by standard stepper motors with closed-loop position control using absolute encoders. The ROS integration guarantees widespread control options and integration into existing environments. Our prototype, tested in accordance with ISO 9283, has a small positional accuracy error of 8.4 mm and a repeatability error of only 0.87 mm with a load capacity of 500 g at a reach of 432 mm. Ten prototypes were built and used in various research and education applications, demonstrating the versatile applicability of this open-source robot, closing the gap between reliable commercial systems and flexible open-source solutions. Full article

The present paper describes the measurement of the drift of unidirectional pose accuracy, repeatability, and static compliance of a collaborative robot employing a measurement methodology that relies on the description of a virtual ISO cube placed in the robot’s workspace. The measurements aimed to investigate and assess the suitability of the UR5 six-axis collaborative robot for its application in robotic 3D printing. An experimental laboratory measurement workstation was constructed to perform the measurements, and control measurements were performed. The measurements involved describing the TCP point of the robot tool at five measurement points located in a virtual ISO cube during a minimum of 30 repeated measurement cycles. A camera and six linear incremental sensors with assessment units were used for the measurements. The measurements were performed in compliance with the regulations of STN ISO 9283 standard for this type of measurement. As a result of the measurements, the technical specifications of the drift and static compliance of the controlled robotic arm were verified, and the results were compared with the values specified by the manufacturer. Following the measurements and assessment of the results, it was possible to assess the suitability of the used UR5 robotic arm for its application in robotic 3D printing and to propose possible recommendations for the calibration of the robot and the process settings of the printing system for the production of objects using FDM technology. Full article

This study describes the design of an experimental methodology developed to measure the working properties of the accuracy of the path traversed by a collaborative robot. The methodology proposed here uses a collaborative robot and a laser measuring system Gepard from Raytec. The main parts of the measuring chain and the ISO 9283 standard are described. The proposed experimental methodology should examine the working properties of industrial robots, such as position and path. The focus of this study lies in the path accuracy of robots. Currently, interest in this topic is on the rise, and the measuring systems capable of recording this parameter are too costly. This study focuses on the experimental measuring of the path properties, describing them in more detail. The measuring and results were processed in the software tool developed for Gepard. Full article

With the concept of industrial automation gradually being put forward, the four-axis robotic arm is gradually being applied in industrial production environments due to its advantages such as a stable structure, easy maintenance, and expandability. However, it is difficult to diversify and improve the traditional four-axis robotic arm system due to the high software and hardware coupling and the single system design, which results in high production costs. At the same time, its low intelligence and high-power consumption limit its wide application. The paper proposes an embedded design of a four-axis manipulator system based on vision guidance. Based on the robot kinematics theory and geometric principles, the dynamics simulation of the manipulator model is carried out. Through the forward and reverse analysis of the manipulator model and the trajectory planning of the manipulator, the YOLOV7 target detection algorithm is introduced and deployed on the embedded device, which greatly reduces the manufacturing cost of the manipulator while meeting the control and power consumption requirements. It has been verified by experiments that the robot arm in this paper can achieve an end accuracy of 0.05 mm under the condition of a load of 1 kg using the ISO 9283 international standard, and the recognition algorithm adopted can achieve a recognition accuracy of 95.2% at a frame rate of 29. The overall power consumption is also lower than that of traditional robotic arms. Full article

ISO 9283 is a significant guiding standard for assessing the performance characteristics of robots. The main objective of the present paper was to verify the repeatability of the Panasonic TM-2000 welding robot at a manufacturing company. The paper describes the workflow of the robot control program in the simulation software RoboDK, which created a complete welding station. The measurement, as well as the simulation, were possible thanks to designing the measuring device, the imaginary ISO cube, the measuring plane, the measuring points, and last but not least, the cycle that determined in which order the points were measured. The analytical part of the paper resulted in a direct measurement of the position repeatability of the welding robot. A total of five points were measured for the X-axis and five points for the Y-axis. Each point was recorded 30 times, with measurements taken in the positive direction of motion. The results were compared with the value given by the manufacturer, and the measured deviations were presented graphically. Full article

This paper addresses the issue of the verification and comparison of the selected properties of a newly developed electric actuator. This actuator is intended to act as the drive of a walking robot designed for robotic football. Its envisioned placement is inside the robot’s knee joint and in its upper part. An integral part of the actuator is a harmonic precision gearbox and an absolute rotation sensor. The prototype of the newly developed actuator consists of both aluminum and 3D-printed parts. The selected parameters were verified according to the selected characteristics of ISO standard 9283, namely a one-directional pose accuracy and repeatable pose accuracy. The obtained data were compared with those of the standard actuator used thus far in constructing robots for robotic football. The implemented verification is based on the need to improve the performance parameters of the actuator while ensuring the sufficient accuracy of stopping the actuator in the required position. This is ensured by the use of a more accurate harmonic reducer and rotation sensor compared to the standard actuator. Full article