CLASSIFICATION OF ROBOTS

FUTURE ROBOTS

• Robotic engineers are designing the next

generation of robots to look, feel and act
more human, to make it easier for us to
warm up to a cold machine.
• Realistic looking hair and skin with
embedded sensors will allow robots to
react naturally in their environment.
FUTURE ROBOTS - PERSONAL ROBOTS
FUTURE ROBOTS - PROFESSIONAL ROBOTS
IN THE FIELD OF DRUG DELIVERY
FUTURE ROBOTS - SURGERY
FUTURE ROBOTS - REHABILITATION
 CLASSIFICATION OF ROBOTS
Entire robots can be classified in to 2 broad categories:

I. Based on II. Based on

Applications Configuration
• Industrial Robots • Polar Configuration
• Tele Robots • Cylindrical Configuration
• Explorer Robots • Cartesian Coordinate
• Laboratory Robots Configuration
• Hobbyist Robots • Jointed Arm Configuration
• Educational Robots
• Medical Robots
 I. CLASSIFICATION BASED
ONAPPLICATIONS
• Industrial Robots:
– An industrial robot is a robot system used for
manufacturing. Industrial robots are automated,
programmable and capable of movement on three
or more axes.
 DEFINING PARAMETERS FOR
INDUSTRIAL ROBOTS
• Number of axes– two axes
are required to reach any
point in a plane;
• three axes are required to
reach any point in space.
• To fully control the
orientation of the end of
the arm(i.e. the wrist)
three more axes (yaw,
pitch, and roll) are
required.
• Some designs (e.g. the
SCARA robot) trade
limitations in motion
possibilities for cost,
speed, and accuracy.
 DEFINING PARAMETERS FOR
INDUSTRIAL ROBOTS
• Degrees of freedom– number of
independent motions that are allowed to the
body, this is usually the same as the number
of axes.
 DEFINING PARAMETERS FOR
INDUSTRIAL ROBOTS
• Working envelope– an envelope is the
region of space a robot can reach during its
normal range of motion.
 DEFINING PARAMETERS FOR
INDUSTRIAL ROBOTS
• Kinematics – the actual arrangement of rigid
members and joints in the robot, which determines
the robot's possible motions.
• Classes of robot kinematics include articulated,
cartesian, parallel and SCARA.

“Kinematics” the branch of mechanics concerned with the motion of objects

without reference to the forces which cause the motion.
KINEMATICS – ARTICULATED ROBOT
KINEMATICS – CARTESIAN ROBOTS
KINEMATICS – PARALLEL ROBOTS
KINEMATICS – SCARA ROBOTS
 I. DEFINING PARAMETERS
FOR INDUSTRIAL
ROBOTS
• Carrying capacity or payload – how much weight a
robot can lift.
• Speed– how fast the robot can position the end of its
arm. This may be defined in terms of the angular or
linear speed of each axis or as a compound speed i.e.
the speed of the end of the arm when all axes are
moving.
• Acceleration – how quickly an axis can accelerate.
Since this is a limiting factor a robot may not be able
to reach its specified maximum speed for
movements over a short distance or a complex path
requiring frequent changes of direction.
 I. DEFINING PARAMETERS
FOR INDUSTRIAL
•
ROBOTS
Accuracy – how closely a robot can reach a commanded
position. When the absolute position of the robot is measured
and compared to the commanded position the error is a
measure of accuracy. Accuracy can be improved with external
sensing, for example a vision system or Infra-Red. Accuracy can
vary with speed and position within the working envelope and
with payload.
• Repeatability – how well the robot will return to a programmed
position. This is not the same as accuracy. It may be that when
told to go to a certain X-Y-Z position that it gets only to within
1 mm of that position. This would be its accuracy which may be
improved by calibration. But if that position is taught into
controller memory and each time it is sent there it returns to
within 0.1mm of the taught position then the repeatability will
be within 0.1mm.
ACCURACY VS REPEATABILITY
 I. CLASSIFICATION BASED
ONAPPLICATIONS
• Tele Robots
Tele robotics is the area of
robotics concerned with the
control of semi-autonomous
robots from a distance,
chiefly using Wireless
network (like Wi-Fi,
Bluetooth, the Deep Space
Network, and similar) or
tethered connections. It is a
combination of two major
subfields, teleoperation and
telepresence
 I. CLASSIFICATION BASED ON
APPLICATIONS
• Explorer Robots
They are used to go where
humans cannot go and fear to
go. Eg: to explore cave, in deep
under water, to rescue people in
sunken ships. Used in Hazardous
Environments. Eg: Military
application
 I. CLASSIFICATION BASED ON
APPLICATIONS
• Laboratory Robots
Laboratory robotics is
the act of using robots
in biology or chemistry
labs. For example,
pharmaceutical
companies employ
robots to move
biological or chemical
samples around to
synthesize novel
chemical entities or to
test
 I. CLASSIFICATION BASED
ONAPPLICATIONS
• Hobbyist Robots
This category of robots are
generally used for
entertainment purpose and
experimenting purpose. These
robots usually equipped with
speech synthesis techniques
 I. CLASSIFICATION BASED ON
APPLICATIONS
• Educational Robots
Educational robotics is a broad term that
refers to a collection of activities,
instructional programs, physical platforms,
educational resources and pedagogical
philosophy. There are many schools which
are using the robot teacher.
 I. CLASSIFICATION BASED
ONAPPLICATIONS
• Medical Robots
A medical robot is a
robot used in the
medical sciences. They
include surgical robots.
These are in most tele
manipulators, which
use the surgeon's
actions on one side to
control the "effector"
on the other side.
II. CLASSIFICATION BASED ON
CONFIGURATION
• Polar Configuration
Has one
linear motion and
two rotary motions. It uses a
telescoping arm that can be raised or
lowered about a horizontal pivot.(α)
.The pivot is mounted on a rotating
base.(θ). A arm also has the capability to
move in and out to provide a linear
motion(x). The various joints provide the
robot with the capability to move its
arm within a spherical space and hence
it is also referred as Spherical coordinate
robot.
II. CLASSIFICATION BASED ON
CONFIGURATION
Cylindrical Configuration
These robots uses a vertical
column and a slide that can be
moved up or 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 is
capable of achieving a work
space that approximates a
cylinder.
Work Envelope: Cylinder
II. CLASSIFICATION BASED ON
CONFIGURATION
Cartesian Coordinate Configuration
These robots uses three
perpendicular slides to
construct the x,y and z axes. Other
names are sometimes applied to
this configuration such as XYZ
robots and rectilinear robot. By
moving the three slides relative to
one another, the robot is capable
of operating within a rectangular
work envelope.
Work Envelope: Rectangular
II. CLASSIFICATION BASED ON
CONFIGURATION
Jointed Arm Configuration
Jointed arm
configuration can be
classified in to 2 types:
(i) Jointed Arm Vertical
Configuration
(ii) Jointed Arm
Horizontal Configuration
(SCARA)
 WORK VOLUME OR WORK ENVELOPE

• The work volume is determined by the

following physical characteristics of the
robot:
– The robot's physical configuration (type of
joints, structure of links)
– The sizes of the body, arm, and wrist
components
– The limits of the robot's joint movements
ROBOT CONFIGURATION: (A) POLAR,
(B) CYLINDRICAL, (C) CARTESIAN,
(D) JOINTED ARM
WORK ENVELOPE:
(a) POLAR (b) CYLINDRICAL,
(c) CARTESIAN
The End