MANIPULATION AND CONTROL

• In the analysis of spatial mechanisms (manipulators), the location of links, joints, and end-
effector in 3-D space is continuously required.

• Mathematical description of the position and orientation of links in space and

manipulation of these is, naturally, one topic of immediate importance.
• To describe position and orientation of a body
in space, a frame is attached to the body. The
position and orientation of this frame with
respect to some reference coordinate frame,
called base frame, mathematically describes
the location of the body.

• Frames are attached to joints, links, end-

effector, and workpieces in the environment Attachment of frames for manipulator modelling
of the robot to mathematically describe them,
as illustrated in Figure.
• The basic problem in the study of mechanical manipulation is of computing the position and
orientation of end-effector of the manipulator when the joint angles are known. This is
referred to as forward kinematics problem.

• The inverse kinematics problem is to determine the joint angles, given the position and
orientation of the end-effector.

• A problem that can be faced in inverse kinematics

is that the solution for joint angles may not be
unique; there may be multiple solutions. This is
illustrated for the simple planar 2-DOF
manipulator in Figure. The 2-DOF two-link planar manipulator
• The inverse kinematics problem is, thus, to calculate all possible sets of joint angles, which
could be used to attain a given position and orientation of the end effector of the
manipulator. The inverse kinematics problem is not as simple as the forward kinematics, as
it requires the solution of the kinematics equations which are nonlinear, involving several
transcendental terms.

Two possible joint positions for

a given end point position
• The space covered by the set of reachable points defines the workspace of a given
manipulator. For example, the workspace of the 2-DOF planar manipulator in previous
slide Figure is shown in Figure below.

The workspace of a 2-DOF planar manipulator

• Another important problem of a manipulator is to find the end-effector velocity for given
joint velocities and its inverse problem of calculating the joint velocities for specified end-
effector velocity.

• These two problems, direct and inverse need the manipulator Jacobian (matrix), which is
obtained from the kinematic parameters.

• Figure illustrates the interaction of a

manipulator at rest with the environment;
the manipulator is exerting a force F on the
body.

• To perform an assigned task or to attain a

desired position, a manipulator is required to
Manipulator exerting a force on the accelerate from rest, travel at specified
environment velocity, traverse a specified path, and finally
decelerate to stop.
• The motion of end-effector through space from point A to point C via point B is illustrated
in Figure. The goal of trajectory planning is to generate time laws for the manipulator
variables for a given description of joint or end-effector motion.

• The dynamic model and the generated trajectory

constitute the inputs to the motion-control system
of the manipulator.

• The problem of manipulator control is to find the

time behaviour of the forces and torques delivered
by the actuators for executing the assigned task.

• Both the manipulator motion control and its force

interaction with the environment are monitored by
the control algorithm. Trajectory generation for motion
from A to C via B
The tasks to be performed by the manipulator are:

(i) to move the end-effector along a desired trajectory, and

(ii)to exert a force on the environment to carry out the desired task.

The controller of manipulator has to control both tasks, the former is called position
control (or trajectory control) and the latter force control.
A schematic sketch of a typical controller is given in Figure.

• The positions, velocities, forces, and torques

are measured by sensors and based on these
measurements and the desired behaviour, the
controller determines the inputs to the
actuators on the robot so that the end-
effector carries out the desired task as
closely as possible. A schematic sketch of a
manipulator control system
SENSORS AND VISION
• For manipulator motion control, joint-link positions, velocities, torques, or
forces are required to be sensed and the end-effector position and orientation is
required for determining actual trajectory being tracked.

• Sensors can be an integral part of the manipulator (internal sensors) or they may
be placed in the robot’s environment or work-cell (external sensors) to permit
the robot to interact with the other activities and objects in the work-cell.

• Sensors used in robotics are tactile sensors or nontactile sensors; proximity or

range sensors; contact or noncontact sensors, or a vision system.

• The robotic vision or vision sensing provides the capability of viewing the
workspace and interpreting what is seen.
PROGRAMMING ROBOTS
• The teaching of the work cycle to a robot is known as robot programming.

• The manipulator is required to execute a specified work cycle and, therefore,

must know where to move, how to move, what work to do, where and so on.

• In teach-by-showing method of programming, the manipulator is made to

move through the desired motion path of the entire work cycle and the path
and other parameters are saved in the memory. This method is also known as
lead through programming.

• The textual programming using a robot programming language can be done

on-line or off-line.
• In on-line programming, the manipulator executes the command as soon as it is
entered and the programmer can verify whether the robot executes the desired
task. Any discrepancy is, therefore, corrected immediately.

• In off-line programming, the robot is not tied-up and can continue doing its task,
that is, there is no loss of production.

• In off-line and on-line programming, after the program is complete, it is saved and
the robot executes it in the ‘run’ mode relentlessly.

• The robot programming languages are built on the lines of conventional computer
programming languages and have their own ‘vocabulary’, ‘grammar’, and ‘syntaxes’.

• The robot programming encompasses all the issues of traditional computer

programming or software development and computer programming languages.
THE FUTURE PROSPECTS
1) More people in the industry are becoming aware of robot technology and its
potential benefits.

2) The robotics technology will develop rapidly in the next few years and more user-
friendly robots will be available.

3) The hardware, software interfacing, and installations will become easier.

4) The production of industrial robots will increase and will bring down the unit cost,
making deployment of robots justifiable.

5) The medium and small-scale industries will be able to beneficially utilize the new
technology.

Robot is the technology for the future and with a future. The current research goals
and trends indicate that the industrial robots of the future will be more robust, more
accurate, more flexible, with more than one arm, more mobile, and will have many
more capabilities.
Bio-Robotics and Humanoid Robotics
• The bio-robotics is historically connected to service robotics. These robots
are conceptualized in a different manner than industrial robots. Their task is
usually to help humans in diverse activities from house cleaning to carrying
out a surgery, or playing the piano to assisting the disabled and the elderly.

• The objective is to analyze and model biological systems behaviour,

intelligence, sensing, and motions in order to incorporate properties of
biological systems in robots. The ultimate objective is to produce a humanoid
robot.

• In the implementation of biological behavioural systems, the replication of

anthropomorphic characteristics is possibly the answer in every context of
development in robotics.
 Assignment-01
Post the answers of the followings with videos related to them.
• Explore the anatomy of the human wrist joint and analyze it for type of motions provided,
number of degrees of freedom, number of joints, type of joints, etc.

• A robot is required to perform an assembly of a shaft into a bearing placed in an arbitrary

position. How many degrees of freedom are required for a manipulator to perform this
task? If the bearing is placed in a fixed plane, say a horizontal plane, what will be the
required number of degrees of freedom? Explain.

• Study the human arm anatomy and describe the features a humanoid robot should have.

• For each of the following tasks, state whether a gripper or an end-of-arm tooling is
appropriate:
a) Welding.
b) Scraping paint from a glass pane.
c) Assembling two parts.
d) Drilling a hole.
e) Tightening a nut of automobile engine.