Robot Subsystems

ANALOGY OF ROBOTS

By: Ms. Suman Bharti

Assistant Professor, Deptt. of Electronics
Bhaskaracharya College of Applied Sciences
 Introduction

 A robot system generally consists of three subsystems:

 A motion subsystem
 A recognition subsystem
 A control subsystem

Figure 1: A robot Subsystem

Cont….

 Mechanical engineering - motion subsystem

 Computer science and electrical engineering-recognition

and control subsystem.

 Robotics is an Interdisciplinary branch.

 Motion subsystem

 The physical structure of the Robot that carries out desired

motion similar to the human arms.

Figure 2: A robot manipulator and its equivalent human parts

 Motion subsystem

 The elements of motion subsystems are:

1. Manipulator
• The physical structure which moves around.
• It comprises of links (aka bodies) and joints (aka kinematic
pairs) normally connected in series.
• Each link is either made of steel or aluminum.
• The joints are generally revolute and prismatic types .
• Just like human arm, wrist and hand arrangement , a robot
manipulator also has three parts: the arm and wrist (Fig 2)
and hand (Fig 3).
2. End-Effector/ Gripper

 Attached at the end of the manipulator, performs the task of a hand.

 E.g: welding gun, paintbrush, grinding wheel, etc.

Fingers

(a) A simple gripper (b) A three-fingered hand

Figure 3: A robot hand.

3. Actuator

 Provides motion to the manipulator links and the end-effector.

 Classified as: Pneumatic, Hydraulic and Electric

 E.g: an electric motor e.g. dc or ac , when coupled to motion

transmission element, e.g. gear, etc. is called an Actuator.

 However, a pneumatic or hydraulic system which can be directly

impart motion to the robot links and the end-effector is called
an actuator, not motor.
4. Transmission elements

 Transmit motion from the electric motor and pneumatic/hydraulic

actuators to the actual links of the manipulator.
 E.g: with motors these elements, mainly, the Gears are used to
step down the speed.
 Typical transmission elements are:
 Belts and Chain Drivers
 Gears
 Link mechanisms
Figure 4: Belt and Chain Drivers
 Screw mechanism
Cont….

Gear

Pinion

Figure 5: Gears
Gear Ratio

 Assume a pair of spur has 20 and 100 teeths, respectively. If the smaller
gear(pinion) rotates at 200rpm, the speed of the larger gear, denoted
with Wg, can be obtained as:

Wg = (1/η) Wp =(200/100)200= 40rpm

 Where,
 η - Gear ratio, defined as the ratio between the number of teeth of
pinion and gear, respectively, i.e. η =Ng/Np
 Ng- number of teeth in gear
 Np- number of teeth in pinion
 Wp- speed of pinion
Example of Link Mechanism and Screw Mechanism

Mechanism: a series of links, generally rigid, coupled by joints that allow

relative motions between any two links form a mechanism.

Figure 6: Mechanisms and their use in a robot manipulator

 Recognition subsystem

 It uses various sensors to gather information about the robot itself

and any object being acted upon, and about the environment.

 Based on sensor data, it recognizes the robot’s state, the objects

and the environment.

 Typically consists of:

 Sensor

 Analog-to-digital Convertor (ADC)

 Control Subsystem

 It influences the Robot’s motion to achieve a given task using the

information provided by the recognition subsystem.
 Typically consists of:

 Digital controller - device that has a CPU, memory and

sometimes hard disk tot store programmed data.
 Digital-to-Analog converter (DAC)
 Amplifier - Commands from controller converted to analog
signal by the DAC are very weak, they need to be amplified to
drive, e.g. the electric motor of the robot manipulator.
Cont…

Figure 7: Control Scheme of a Robot

 References

1. S.K Saha, “Introduction to Robotics”, 2nd edition.