Configuration Support and Kinematics for a Reconfigurable Gantry-Tau Manipulator
(2007) IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2007 p.2957-2962- Abstract
- Affordable and competitive industrial automation is of key importance for small and medium enterprises, in Europe and elsewhere. A key factor is the introduction of new robot automation concepts that ease fast deployment and extend available task repertoire. The Gantry-Tau manipulator is a new robot concept. In contrast to other parallel kinematic manipulators (PKMs), it has a large working range. The high stiffness makes it ideal for a wide range of tasks such as grinding, deburring, and cutting. An additional aspect of such a PKM is the modularity, which in this work has been studied in terms of possibilities for assembly and mechanical reconfiguration at the end-user site, integration of such a kinematically different robot with a... (More)
- Affordable and competitive industrial automation is of key importance for small and medium enterprises, in Europe and elsewhere. A key factor is the introduction of new robot automation concepts that ease fast deployment and extend available task repertoire. The Gantry-Tau manipulator is a new robot concept. In contrast to other parallel kinematic manipulators (PKMs), it has a large working range. The high stiffness makes it ideal for a wide range of tasks such as grinding, deburring, and cutting. An additional aspect of such a PKM is the modularity, which in this work has been studied in terms of possibilities for assembly and mechanical reconfiguration at the end-user site, integration of such a kinematically different robot with a standard industrial controller, and new needs for methods/tools to support simple (re)configuration. What is needed for fully utilizing the modularity of the concept in typical SME manufacturing scenarios? A range of software tools and methods were found to be useful and necessary for efficient engineering and integration. For experimental evaluation, a full-scale prototype robot was designed and built, the kinematic software was developed and integrated into the ABB kinematics software, robot CAD software was adapted to the configuration needs, and both simulations and physical experiments were carried out. Our findings make us believe that enhanced software tools should be integrated on a higher symbolic (or meta-) level to better support transformation of data and code generation, but also that the Gantry-Tau type of robot (with adequate software support) will bring a new dimension of flexibility into SME manufacturing. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/643351
- author
- Dressler, Isolde LU ; Haage, Mathias LU ; Nilsson, Klas LU ; Johansson, Rolf LU ; Robertsson, Anders LU and Brogardh, T.
- organization
- publishing date
- 2007
- type
- Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- robot CAD software, SME manufacturing, robot automation, reconfigurable Gantry-Tau manipulator, ABB kinematics software, parallel kinematic manipulators
- host publication
- 2007 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (IEEE Cat No. 07CH37836D)
- pages
- 6 pages
- publisher
- IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
- conference name
- IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2007
- conference location
- Roma, Italy
- conference dates
- 2007-04-10 - 2007-04-14
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000250915302158
- scopus:36349029104
- DOI
- 10.1109/ROBOT.2007.363921
- project
- SMErobot
- RobotLab LTH
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 194127db-a272-4cd9-8ef2-c9c6c322bcf7 (old id 643351)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-04 12:06:02
- date last changed
- 2023-09-11 16:03:56
@inproceedings{194127db-a272-4cd9-8ef2-c9c6c322bcf7, abstract = {{Affordable and competitive industrial automation is of key importance for small and medium enterprises, in Europe and elsewhere. A key factor is the introduction of new robot automation concepts that ease fast deployment and extend available task repertoire. The Gantry-Tau manipulator is a new robot concept. In contrast to other parallel kinematic manipulators (PKMs), it has a large working range. The high stiffness makes it ideal for a wide range of tasks such as grinding, deburring, and cutting. An additional aspect of such a PKM is the modularity, which in this work has been studied in terms of possibilities for assembly and mechanical reconfiguration at the end-user site, integration of such a kinematically different robot with a standard industrial controller, and new needs for methods/tools to support simple (re)configuration. What is needed for fully utilizing the modularity of the concept in typical SME manufacturing scenarios? A range of software tools and methods were found to be useful and necessary for efficient engineering and integration. For experimental evaluation, a full-scale prototype robot was designed and built, the kinematic software was developed and integrated into the ABB kinematics software, robot CAD software was adapted to the configuration needs, and both simulations and physical experiments were carried out. Our findings make us believe that enhanced software tools should be integrated on a higher symbolic (or meta-) level to better support transformation of data and code generation, but also that the Gantry-Tau type of robot (with adequate software support) will bring a new dimension of flexibility into SME manufacturing.}}, author = {{Dressler, Isolde and Haage, Mathias and Nilsson, Klas and Johansson, Rolf and Robertsson, Anders and Brogardh, T.}}, booktitle = {{2007 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (IEEE Cat No. 07CH37836D)}}, keywords = {{robot CAD software; SME manufacturing; robot automation; reconfigurable Gantry-Tau manipulator; ABB kinematics software; parallel kinematic manipulators}}, language = {{eng}}, pages = {{2957--2962}}, publisher = {{IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.}}, title = {{Configuration Support and Kinematics for a Reconfigurable Gantry-Tau Manipulator}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ROBOT.2007.363921}}, doi = {{10.1109/ROBOT.2007.363921}}, year = {{2007}}, }