Researches On Modular Industrial Robot Design

With the rapid development of the modern industry, the application of industrial robot is more and more extensive. When the working place or the given task is changed, the limitation of the traditional industrial robot is obviously increased. To solve this problem, a new type industrial robot, called modular industrial robot is invented. The modular industrial robot is composed of some mechanical modules, which are similar in structure and function. According the given task, choosing different module arrange to build relevant modular industrial robot. In this paper I design a suit of mechanical module to build modular industrial robot, and research the basic kinematics equation problem of this modular industrial robot system.The module design is the basic work of the modular industrial robot research. According to the existing modular design theory, the traditional industrial robot is divided into several independent joint modules. With different numbers or different kinds of the modular, a lot of modular industrial robots can be built, including both the SCARA robot and the joint robot. The modules are independently with each others. Make sure the active module is a mechanical cell which can be controlled separately. The module can be connected with others by using of the connecting equipment, so the modular industrial robot can be reconstructed rapidly and effectively.The three-dimensional model of each module is built by using the Pro/ENGINEER software, the modular industrial robot type is also built. Under the environment of the Pro-E software, the movement interference and the dynamics performance of the industrial robot can be analyzed. By this way the structure parameter of each module is finally decided. The mechanical performance of the key accessories should be examined by using of the knowledge of mechanical design notebook and the measure analysis function of the Pro-E software. In final the optimized model can be determined.The kinematics problem of the modular industrial robot includes two parts, the forward kinematics problem and the inverse kinematics problem. The homogeneous coordinate transformation matrix of each module is built by using of the D-H parameter method. When a new modular industrial robot is built, the transformation matrix of the corresponding module is transferred according to the modules' sequence. Then the forward kinematics equation problem can be solved by the matrix multiplication. The inverse kinematics problem can be solved by calculating the polynomial equations. The polynomial equation is built by equaling the forward kinematics equation to the end position matrixes. At the end, the theoretical model is simulated by the Labview software on the computer. The correctness of the kinematics equation model of the modular industrial robot is verified by the simulation program. The movement path error of the end-effecter is analyzed by the path display interface. As a result, the model of the modular industrial robot we proposed is optimized.