MODULE -1

Robot Anatomy
A system is an integrated whole of parts or subsystems. A system has a specified goal or output for a
given set of inputs; a system may have many goals as well. A robot is a system as it combines many
subsystems that interact among themselves as well as with the environment in which the robot
works.
A robot has many components which include:
1. A base—fixed or mobile.
2. A manipulator arm with several degrees of freedom (DOF).
3. An end-effector or gripper holding a part or a tool.
4. Drives or actuators causing the manipulator arm or end-effector to move in a space.
5. Controller with hardware and software support for giving commands to the drives.
6. Sensors to feed back the information for subsequent actions of the arm or gripper as well as to
interact with the environment in which the robot is working.
7. Interfaces connecting the robotic subsystems to the external world.
A robot has some specific objective. It may be designed for simply picking up and placing the
workpieces. It may be employed to interact with and work load a lathe, a milling machine or any
equipment, or it may also perform some assembly work. To accomplish the job, a robot must have a
suitable manipulator arm with specified coordinate systems to attain a designed reach in the
working space. It should have a suitable gripper to match the geometry of the workpiece to be
handled; a suitable control system with or without servo mechanisms for sending signals to the
drives, or permitting storage of programmes and data for desired path planning with adequate speed
and good accuracy. The robot may have some sensors to feed back information for modifying the
motion or path. The controller is provided with interfacing units connected to external equipment in
the outside world.
Figure 1.1 indicates a scheme of a robotic system. It consists of a manipulator arm, a gripper, a
controller, and a power source. Figure 1.2 indicates the basic components of a microprocessor-based
pneumatic robot system. Figure 1.3 shows a popular model of computer-controlled Unimation–
Puma robot. Figure 1.4 shows Cincinnati Milacron T3 robotic manipulator indicating six degrees of
freedom—arm sweep, shoulder swivel, elbow extension, wrist pitch, wrist yaw and wrist roll.

Figure 1.1 A robotic system

Figure 1.2 Basic components of a microprocessor-based robotic system

Figure 1.3(a) Six axes Puma manipulator

Figure 1.3(b) A scheme of computer controlled Puma robotic system

 Figure 1.4 The Cincinnati Milacron T3 robot

Robotic Manipulator Arm

The most obvious mechanical configuration of the robot is the manipulator arm. There are several
designs of the arm to facilitate movement within the work envelope with maximum possible load
and speed with high precision and repeatability. The simplest robot may be a two or three-axes arm.
The axis is meant to understand independent movement or degree of freedom.
Figure 1.5 indicates a simple blacksmith's tong that can be used as an end of arm tooling attached to
a manipulator to provide three degrees of freedom (DOF) to locate or translate an object and three
degrees of freedom to orient it. P1, P2 and P3 are the three DOFs indicating translation or location of
hand and R1, R2 and R3 are the three DOFs of orientation of the object.

Figure 1.5 A blacksmith's tong indicating 6-degrees of freedom

Robots are built with several degrees of freedom that may vary from two to ten. Most of the industrial
robots have, of course, five or six degrees of freedom. A typical robotic manipulator arm suitable for
remote purpose operations is illustrated in Fig. 1.6.

Figure 1.6 A manipulator arm for remote purpose operations

It has 3 degrees of freedom for locating or positioning the object and 3 degrees of freedom for
orienting the same.
A robotic manipulator arm consists of several separate links making a chain. The manipulator is
located relative to the ground on either a fixed base or on a movable base. The base may be a mobile
one and may have some transportation system. The manipulator arm has a free-end where an end-
effector or gripper or sometimes a specialized tool holder (for holding, say, a welding gun) or any
powered device (say, a drill) is attached. In a fixed base, 6 degrees of freedom robot, the first three
links of the manipulator constitute the body and they help to place the end-effector at a desired
location inside its work environment or working volume. The remaining three links make up the
wrist of the manipulator and are used to define the orientation of the manipulator end points. It is
therefore important to know the types of the linkages used in the base-body-wrist-end effector
complex in the manipulator work environment system.
A robot is essentially a movable open chain of successively coupled bodies with one end fixed to the
ground and the free end containing an end effector. The bodies of the open chain are usually links
which are joined together by some lower pair connectors. The most common types of lower pair
connectors are:
 Revolute pair (1 DOF)
 Prismatic pair (1 DOF)
 Cylindric pair (2 DOF)
 Spherical pair (3 DOF)
 Hooke joint (2 DOF)
Figures 1.7–1.11 illustrate the various types of elemental pairs or joints. The revolute pair (R) as
shown in Fig. 1.7 permits relative rotation about a unique pair axis and has a single degree of
freedom.

Figure 1.7 Revolute pair (R) Figure 1.8 Prismatic pair (P) Figure 1.9 Cylindrical pair (C)

Figure 1.10 Spherical pair (S) Figure 1.11 Hooke's joint (T)
However, the most basic joints are the one-DOF revolute pair (R) and one-DOF prismatic pair (P) and
these two pairs are extensively used in combination in the robotic manipulators.

Robot Kinematics
Robot arm kinematics deals with the analytic study of the motion of a robot arm with respect to a
fixed reference coordinate system as a function of time. The mechanical manipulator can be modelled
as an open loop articulated chain with several rigid links connected in series by either 'revolute' or
'prismatic' joints driven by the actuators.
For a manipulator, if the position and orientation of the end-effector are derived from the given joint
angles and link parameters, the scheme is called the forward kinematics problem. If, on the other
hand, the joint angles and the different configuration of the manipulator are derived from the
position and orientation of the end-effector, the scheme is called the reverse kinematics problem.
Figure 1.12 illustrates the scheme of forward and reverse kinematics.

Figure 1.12 Forward and inverse kinematics scheme

Representing the Position
Considering the revolute type of joint only, the position of the end-effector can be represented by the
joint angles, Ɵ1, Ɵ2, ……., Ɵn as,
𝑃𝑗𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑡 = (Ɵ1 , Ɵ2 , Ɵ3 , … … . , Ɵn ) (1.1)
The position of the end-effector can also be defined in world space as,
𝑃𝑊𝑂𝑅𝐿𝐷 = (x, y, z) (1.2)
For a Revolute-Revolute (R-R) joint having 2 degrees of freedom, the schematic diagram of the links
in 2-D, is shown in Fig. 1.13. l1 and l2 are the links. θ1 and θ2 are the angles of rotation.

Figure 1.13 R-R type two DOF 2-D manipulator

Forward Transformation
The position and orientation of the end-effector shown in Fig. 1.14 in world space can be determined
from the joint angles and the link parameters by the following equations,

(1.3)

(1.4)

(1.5)

Figure 1.14 Three DOF 2-D manipulator

Reverse Transformation
The joint angles can also be determined from the end-effector position (x3, y3) and the orientation
(ϕ), using reverse transformation in the following way

(1.6)

(1.7)
From the given geometry,

(1.8)
(1.9)
Squaring and adding Eqs (1.8) and (1.9),

(1.10)
Substituting the value of θ in Eqs (1.8) and (1.9), we obtain the value of θ1. Finally, the value of θ3 can
be obtained using the following relation:

(1.11)

Robot Specifications
Robots may be classified according to their characteristics, namely:
 Multiple task capability
 Level of machine intelligence
 Kinematic structure
 Geometric dexterity
  Mobility
 Actuator modules
 Payload capacity
 Precision, accuracy, repeatability
 Sensory capability
 Operational envelope
 Application groups
An industrial robot is classified mainly on the basis of its manipulating arm and the joint
configurations to position the endeffector. Accordingly, robots have the following coordinate
systems:
 Cartesian coordinate
 Cylindrical coordinate
 Spherical or polar coordinate
 Anthropomorphic or articulated or jointed arm coordinate
Sometimes robots may be classified according to the pair of joints which provide degrees of freedom.
They are: R-R-P (revolute-revolute-prismatic), R-R-R, R-P-P, P-R-R, P-P-P, or a combination of all
these.
A wrist of a robot may be specified by the type of motion it performs, viz., pitch, yaw and roll.
Accordingly the wrist may be broadly classified as
 Wrist type 1A (having single degree of freedom)
 Wrist type IB
 Wrist type 2A
 Wrist type 2A (having 2 degrees of freedom)
 Wrist type 2B
 Wrist type 3A
 Wrist type 3A
 Wrist type 3B (having 3 degrees of freedom)
 Wrist type 3C
 Wrist type 3D
A robot may have different end-effectors. They are mechanical type, magnetic pick up and, vacuum
or suction pick up.
Sometimes, a robot may have a two-fingered, three-fingered or multifingered end-effector.
Robots may be identified as fixed, mobile and walking or legged robot. There are various methods of
specifying robot movement. They are:
 Fixed sequence robot
 Variable sequence robot
 Playback robot
 NC robot
 Intelligent robot
A robot may be non-servo (bang-bang type) or servo (proportional feedback type).
A robot may be classified according to the type of control. They are point-to-point robot, continuous
path robot, and controlled path robot.
Robots may use various offline programming systems via different robot languages, viz, VAL, SIGLA,
AL, PLACE, RAPT, AML, PAL, MCL, RAIL, HELP, RPL, JARS, ADA, etc.
A robot is further specified by its speed or maximum velocity at the end-effector. (Velocity, V, mm/s
or rad/s.)
A robot is found to be efficient in repeating its movement under the same precisely defined
conditions. Hence, repeatability may be defined as
Robots may have different load carrying or lifting capacity. The playload, is thus defined as W, kg or
N. Robots may be grouped according to the sensory systems they are provided with. They are:
 Simple and blind robot (with internal sensors)
 Vision robot
 Moderately intelligent robot (with external tactile and non-tactile sensors)
Robots may also be specified according to the type of industrial applications, viz.
 Part handling robot
 Tool operating robot
 Assembly robot
Robots are sometimes classified in accordance with the specific task they perform, viz. die casting,
investment casting, forging, pick-and-place operations, machine tool loading and unloading, welding,
spray painting, inspection, assembly and education and training.
A typical classification system of robots is based on the skill of operation required in various
manufacturing applications. They are:
1. Low accuracy contouring (for spray painting, spot welding, etc.)
2. Low accuracy point-to-point (loading/unloading from heat treatment furnaces, die casting
machine, etc.)
3. Moderate accuracy contouring (arc welding, deburring etc.)
4. Moderate accuracy point-to-point (forging, loading/unloading machine tools, part orientation,
etc.)
5. Close tolerance and assembly applications

……………….(Continued)