Ch.

2 History and applications of delta robot

2.1 History of delta robot creation

It is in the early 80's when Swiss Reymond Clavel (professor at
EPFL - Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) comes up
with the brilliant idea of using parallelograms to build a parallel
robot with three translational and one rotational degree of
freedom. Contrary to opinions published elsewhere, his
inspiration was truly original and does not come from a parallel
mechanism patented by Willard L.

2.2 Delta robot in market & applications

The history of the Delta robot marketing is long, complicated,
and intriguing. It all started in 1983
when the two Swiss brothers Marc-
Olivier and Pascal Demaurex created
the company Demaurex based in
Romanel-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland.
After purchasing a license for the Delta
robot in 1987, their major objective
became to commercialize the parallel Fig.(2.1)
robot for the packaging industry.
After several years, Demaurex succeeded in
occupying a major place in this new difficult
market. Demaurex now claims to have sold
some 500 Delta robots worldwide Fig. (2.1).
A Swedish company called Elekta,
specializes in the surgical domain and
manufactures a Delta robot used to carry a
heavy (20 kg) microscope (SurgiScope) Fig
.(2.2).
Before the SurgiScope transaction, Elekta
IGS entered negotiations over its Delta Fig.(2.2)
license with the Zurich based Global
technology group ABB.

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Ch.2 History and applications of delta robot

ABB Flexible Automation launched its Delta robot in 1999

under the name IRB 340 FlexPicker.
Three industry sectors were aimed the
food, pharmaceutical, and electronics
Fig.(2.3) industries.
Now a days The competition on the
market of delta robot not only between
Demaurex and ABB but the well known
Fanuc have entered the market strongly
and also the famous Panasonic beside
some tiny Chinese companies which Fig.(2.3)
offers low prices but with lower quality.

2.3 Delta robot other applications

As we have explained before delta robot could be used in many
industrial applications like food, medical, electronics …. Etc
Here we are going to give some brief notes on some unusual
applications of delta robot.

2.3.1 Delta robot as walking robot

Delta robot is used as walking robot
in some prototypes and some
companies present a walking delta
robot models Fig.(2.4).
Delta robot is considered as six
legged walking robot once the
moving plate form is held to the
ground allowing the frame to move
and then The mechanism of the
robot is reversed so the base Fig.(2.4)
platform interchanges with the
travelling platform and the robot continue its steps.

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Ch.2 History and applications of delta robot

2.3.2 Delta robot as drawing machine

Delta robot is used in many applications as CNC machines and
even as a drawing machine Fig.(2.5)

Fig.(2.5)

2.4 Delta robot structure and work space

The delta robot consists of fixed plate and moving plate
connected with each other by parallelogram and the input link
which could be rotational or translational.

The basic idea behind the Delta parallel robot design is the use
of parallelograms, the use of three such parallelograms restrains
completely the orientation of the mobile platform which remains
only with three purely translational degrees of freedom and
moves only parallel to the fixed plate.
The core advantage of delta robots is speed. When typical robot
arm has to move not only payload, but also all servos in each
joint, the only moving part of delta robot is its frame, which is
usually made of lightweight composite materials

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Ch.2 History and applications of delta robot

2.4.1 Delta robot with translational input

In this structure of delta robot the input motion is
given by at least three translational input
actuators and this motion is transmitted to the
moving plate through the parallel gram (PSS)
Fig.(2.5)
This structure is used in tasks like milling and
printing 3D and which requires very high
stiffness mechanism.

Also the translational

input actuator could be Fig.(2.5)
vertical like in Fig.(2.5) or
it could be inclined like in Fig.(2.6),
however any of those two structures do the
same function and both should have the
same components.

Fig.(2.6)

And here is the work volume of the Delta robot

with translational input Fig.(4.3)

Fig.(2.7)

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Ch.2 History and applications of delta robot

2.5 Delta robot with rotational input

In this structure of delta robot the input motion is
given by at least three rotational input actuators and
this motion is transmitted to the moving plate
through the parallel gram (RSS) Fig.(2.8)
This structure is used in very fast tasks for example
for picking industry and any quick task.
And here is the shape of the work volume of
rotational input delta robot Fig.(2.9)
Fig.(2.8)

2.6 Our delta robot

In our project we have used the last structure
which is the delta robot with rotational input we
have built an acrylic fixed plate connected to
the ground with three aluminum supports .
Fig.(2.10)The fixed plate carries the power
supply and the control board and the three servo
motors mounted on it. The three servo
motors is connected to the three cranks Fig.(2.9)
which are connected to three aluminum
parallelograms connected to the lower
moving plate, this structure gives us high
speed, low weight, ease to transportation
delta robot.
The components of this structure will be
explained in detail in the manufacturing
chapter.

Fig.(2.10)

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