Robot Anatomy

It is the physical construction of the body, arm, and wrist of the machine.

The body, arm, and wrist assembly is sometimes called the manipulator, and attached to the robot’s
wrist is a hand or a tool called the end effector.

End effector is not considered as part of the robot’s anatomy but the arm and body joints of the
manipulator are used to position the end effector, and the wrist joints of the manipulator are used to
orient the end effector.

Example of End Effectors

1. Grippers
2. Welding Torches
3. Collision sensors
4. Tool changers

Four Common Robot Configurations

1. Polar configuration

It uses a telescoping arm that can be raised or lowered about a horizontal pivot. The pivot is
mounted on a rotating base. The various joints provide the robot with the capability to
move its arm within a spherical space.

Spherical/Polar Robots
A robot with 1 prismatic joint and 2 rotary joints – the axes consistent with a polar
coordinate system.

Commonly used for:

•handling at die casting or fettling machines
•handling machine tools
•arc/spot welding
 Spherical/Polar Robots Advantages:
• large working envelope.
• two rotary drives are easily sealed against liquids/dust.

Disadvantages:
• complex coordinates more difficult to visualize, control, and program.
• exposed linear drive.
• low accuracy.

2. Cylindrical configuration

These configuration uses a vertical column and a slide that can be move up and down along
the column. The robot arm is attached to the slide so that it can be moved radially with
respect to the column. By rotating the column, the robot can move like a cylinder.

Cylindrical Robots
• In this, the robot body is a vertical column that swivels about vertical axis
• The arm consists of several orthogonal slides which allow the arm to be moved up and
down and in or out w.r.t. to body

Commonly used for:

• handling at die-casting machines
• assembly operations
• handling machine tools
• spot welding

Cylindrical Robots Advantages:

• can reach all around itself
• rotational axis easy to seal
• relatively easy programming
• rigid enough to handle heavy loads through large working space
• good access into cavities and machine openings
 Disadvantages:
• linear axes are hard to seal
• won’t reach around obstacles
• exposed drives are difficult to cover from dust and liquids

3. Cartesian coordinate configuration

The Cartesian coordinate robot illustrated above uses three perpendicular slides to
construct the x, y, and z axes. By moving the three slides relative to one another, the robot
is moving within a rectangular work envelope.

Cartesian Robots
• It consists of three orthogonal slides.
• Three slides are parallel to x, y and z axes of the Cartesian coordinate system

Commonly used for:

• pick and place work
• assembly operations
• handling machine tools
• arc welding

Cartesian Robots Advantages:

• ability to do straight line insertions into furnaces.

• easy computation and programming.
• most rigid structure for given length.
 Disadvantages:

• requires large operating volume.

• exposed guiding surfaces require covering in corrosive or dusty environments.
• can only reach front of itself

4. Articulated/Jointed-arm configuration

The Jointed-arm robot is made up of rotating joints moving similar to the human arm.

This chain of revolute joints provides greater freedom and dexterity in movement of the
articulated robotic arm. SCARA and PUMA are the most popularly used articulated robots in
assembly lines and packaging processes.

Robot Motions
Industrial robots are designed to perform productive work such as pick and place, welding, assembly
and more. The work is accomplished by enabling the robot to move its body, arm, and wrist through
series of motions and positions.

The individual joint motions associated with the performance of a task are referred to by the term
degrees of freedom (DOF) and a typical robot is equipped with four to six DOF.
The robot’s motions are accomplished by means of powered joints. Three joints are normally associated
with the action of the arm, body, and the two or three joints are generally used to actuate the wrist.
Connecting the various manipulator joints together are rigid members that are called links.

The links can be connected to form a serial chain or a parallel chain.

The joints used in the design of industrial robots typically involve a relative motion of the adjoining links
that is either linear or rotational.

Example design of a robot:

Linear joints involve a sliding or translational motion of the connecting links.

Rotating or revolute joints involve a revolving motion of the connecting links

The arm and body joints are designed to enable the robot to move its end effector to a desired position
within the limit of the robot’s size and joint movements.

For robots of polar, cylindrical, or jointed-arm configuration, the three degrees of freedom associated
with the arm and body motions are:

1. Vertical traverse: This is the capability to move the wrist up or down to provide the desired vertical
attitude.

2. Radial traverse: This involves the extension or retraction (in or out movement) of the arm from
vertical center of the robot.

3. Rotational traverse: This is the rotation of the arm about the vertical axis (right or left swivel of the
robot arm).

The degrees of freedom associated with the arm and body of the robot are shown below:
The wrist movement is designed to enable the robot to orient the end effector properly with respect to
the task being performed.

Three degrees of freedom for orientation of the wrist:

1. Wrist roll: also called as wrist swivel, this involves rotation of the wrist mechanism about the
arm axis.
2. Wrist pitch: also called wrist bend, given that the wrist roll is in its center position, the pitch
would involve the up and down rotation of the wrist.
3. Wrist yaw: involve the right or left rotation of the wrist.

These degrees of freedom for the wrist are shown below.:

Robot Basic Motion System

Examples of Industrial Robots are PUMA and SCARA

PUMA Robot (Programmable Universal machine for assembly)

• PUMA is the most commonly used industrial robot in assembly, welding operations and university
laboratories.

 PUMA resembles more closely to the human arm than SCARA.

 PUMA has greater flexibility than SCARA but with the increased compliance comes the reduced
precision.
 Thus, PUMA is preferably used in assembly applications which do not require high precision,
such as, welding and stocking operations.

PUMA robot having six degrees of freedom.

SCARA (Selective compliance assembly robot arm)

 It is a simple articulated robot which can perform assembly tasks precisely and fast.
 SCARA is most adept in pick and place operations in any assembly line in industries with speed
as well as precision.
 SCARA is more or less like a human arm the motion is restricted horizontal sweeping and vertical
movement, it cannot rotate along an axis other than vertical.

SCARA robot design for assembly

 Articulated robots used in machining, spray painting, welding

Work volume

It is the term that refers to the space within which the robot can manipulate its wrist.

The convention of using the wrist end to define the robot’s work volume is adopted to avoid
complication of different sizes of the end effectors.

The work volume is determined by the following physical characteristics of the robot:

a. The robot’s physical configuration (type of joints, structure of links)

b. The size of the body, arm, and wrist components
c. The limits of the robot’s joint movements

Polar robot has a work volume of a partial sphere.

Cylindrical robot has a work volume that is cylindrical.

Cartesian robot has a work volume of a rectangular shape.

Joint Notation Scheme
The physical configuration of the robot manipulator can be described by means of a joint notation
scheme using the join types defined earlier.

Uses the joint symbols (L, R, T, V) to designate joint types used to construct robot manipulator

Separates body-and-arm assembly from wrist assembly using a colon (:)

Example: TLR : TR

Manipulator Joints

Linear joint (type L)

Rotational joint (type R)

Twisting joint (type T)

Revolving joint (type V)

Notation Scheme for designating robot configurations

Example: TRL

Consists of a sliding arm (L joint) actuated relative to the body which can rotate about both vertical axis
(T joint) and horizontal axis (R joint)
TRT: R

TVR:TR

RR:T

Practice Exercises

Sketch the manipulator configurations of the following:

a. LVR:R
b. RLR:RT
c. LRR:T
Graded Exercise

Based on your Week1 Group Activity, do the following

1. Explain the motion of your design robot

2. Create the manipulator configurations of your Robot.
3. Sketch the arm and body designation according to your manipulator configurations.
4. Sketch your robot wrist designation according to your manipulator configurations.
5. Pair with another group, then analyze the differences between your wrist configurations and the
other’s group wrist configurations in the capability to position and orient an end effector.

Submit a video presentation of your output. Just use the same google drive for me to view the video.

Note: The presentation must have a maximum for five minutes’ duration. Also, you may use Blender for
your designing or other free software tools available like Altium, CadSoft, etc.