Chapter 3

Robot anatomy and Components

 Objectives
 Have a knowledge about a robotic information system & robot physical construction.

 Be familiar with different robot configurations and their applications.

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 Topics
 Robotic Information Process

Robot Physical Components

Robot Manipulator
Robot Other Components

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Robotic Information Process
‫عملية المعلومات الروبوتية‬
Basic steps of a robotic information process:
■ Data acquisition (measurement) by sensors,
■ Scene modeling and understanding (perception),
■ Task planning (decomposition into repetitive elementary steps),
■ Action (use of a scene model and task plan to reach a given goal).

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‫ أنظمة الروبوت الفرعية‬ROBOT SUBSYSTEMS

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 Process Subsystem
Specification of the robot tasks,
the robot environment,
and the robot environment interaction
(the domain of the applications engineer).

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 Planning Subsystem(‫) نظام التخطيط الفرعي‬
Refinement (‫ )صقل‬of the task into a sequence of
steps that the robot can execute (the intelligent processes of modeling the
world by fusing ‫ دمج‬data from a variety of sensors with mathematical
models of the task, perception process of selecting strategies to execute the
task based on the world model, and planning process of converting these
strategies into robot control programs).

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Control Subsystem

Execution of the control program by converting high-level

commands into references for physical actuators, comparing
feedback values to these references, and stabilizing the motion
of the physical elements by modeling the mechanisms and the
processes, adapting control loop gains, and updating the
process and mechanism models with measured data.

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Electrical and mechanical
Subsystems
■ All the electrically controlled actuators referenced by
the control subsystem and all the mechanisms driven
by these actuators to perform a given task.

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Sensor Subsystem

■ Monitoring parameters within the robot and in the environment (a feedback to be used
by the control loops to detect potentially (‫ )محتملة‬hazardous situations, to verify that the
task has been performed correctly, and to construct a world model).

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Robot Components

■ Physical parts or anatomy ‫األجزاء الفيزيائية أو التركيب البنيوي‬

■ Built-in instructions or instinct ‫تعليمات مدمجة‬
■ Learned behavior (task programs) )‫السلوك المكتسب (برامج المهام‬

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Physical Parts

Basic parts of a robot:

■ Mechanical part - Body and manipulator (Arm, Wrist).
■ End- effector (Tool or Gripper)
■ Actuators (power providers for robot motions),
■ Controller (Sensors, Processor) - processing of sensed data, planning,
control.
■ Power supply
■ Vehicle (optional) - wheeled, legged, or tracked.

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 Robot body
■ The body of a robot is related to the job it must perform.
■ Industrial robots often take the shape of a body less arm since its job requires it to remain stationary
relative to its task.
■ Space robots have many different body shapes such as a sphere, a platform with wheels or legs, or a
balloon, depending on their job.

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Robot Manipulator
■ Manipulator contains a series of segments, jointed or sliding relative to one another
for the purpose of moving objects.
■ The manipulator includes the arm and the wrist.

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Manipulator Anatomy

■ Manipulator is constructed of a series of

Joints & Links.
■ A Joint provides relative motion between
the input link and the output link.
■ Robot arm joints provide either linear or rotary movement;
driven by linear or rotary actuators.
■ Each joint provides the robot with one degree of freedom .

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Degrees of Freedom(D.O.F.)

■ The number of independent movements of an object that can

be made with respect to a coordinate frame is called its number
of degrees of freedom.
■ Usually each joint represents one degree of freedom.

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.D.O.F

■ A degree of freedom can be defined as the direction in which a robot

moves when a joint is actuated; usually each joint represents one degree
of freedom.
■ Three degrees of freedom associated with arm and body of a robot to
specify the location
■ Three degrees of freedom associated with the robot wrist to specify the
orientation.

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Robot Hand (manipulator)= Arm & Wrist

■ Robot arm - joints provide either linear or rotary movement; driven by linear or rotary
actuators.
■ The arm joints are used to position the end effector.
■ The wrist joints are used to orient the end effector.

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Robot Hand Location

■ Point location in space specified by three coordinates (3 P).

■ Object location in space specified by position of a selected point on it (3 P) and
orientation of the object (3 R).
■ Six degrees (3P, 3 R) of freedom needed to fully place the object in space and orientate
it.

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Robot Joints

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Some robot joints
 Joint notation Scheme
■ The letter symbols for the joint types are used to define a joint notation
system for the robot manipulator.
■ The manipulator is described by the joint types that make up the body-
and-arm assembly, followed by the joint symbols that make up the wrist.
■ A colon separates the body-and-arm notation from the wrist notation.
For example - TLR:TR.

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-‫(الذراع الرابوتي حسب الشكل الهندسي‬ Robot Arm Configurations
) ‫االحداثيات‬

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Robot Arms

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Common types of robot design

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 Robot Reference frames

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Casrtesian (3P)- ‫) ذو االحداثيات الديكارتية‬

Due to their rigid structure they can manipulate high loads so they
are commonly used for pick and-place operations, machine
tool loading, in fact any application that uses a lot of moves in
the X,Y,Z planes. These robots occupy a large space, giving a
low ratio of robot size to operating volume. They may require
some form of protective covering.

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Cylindrical (R2P) - ‫ذو االحداثيات االسطوانية‬

■ They have a rigid structure, giving them the capability to lift

heavy loads through a large working envelope, but they are
restricted to area close to the vertical base or the floor.
■ This type of robot is relatively easy to program for loading
and unloading of palletized stock, where only the minimum
number of moves is required to be programmed.

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Spherical (Polar) (2RP) ‫ذو االحداثيات الكروية او القطبية‬

■ These robots can generate a large working envelope.

■ The robots can allow large loads to be lifted.
■ The semi-spherical operating volume leaves a considerable
space near to the base that cannot be reached.
■ This design is used where a small number of vertical actions is
adequate: the loading and unloading of a punch press ( ‫مكبس‬
‫ )تخريم‬is a typical application.

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Articulated Arm (3R) ‫ذو االحداثيات الممفصلة‬

■ This is the most widely used arm configuration because of its

flexibility in reaching any part of the working envelope.
■ This configuration flexibility allows such complex
applications as spray painting and welding to be implemented
successfully.

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SCARA

■ Although originally designed specifically for assembly work,

these robots are now being used for welding, drilling and
soldering operations because of their repeatability and
compactness.
■ They are intended for light to medium loads and the working
volume tends to be restricted as there is limited vertical
movement.

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Robot workspace

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Manipulator Design

Manipulator designs are typically characterized by the:

■ number of independent degrees of freedom in the mechanism,
■ types of joints providing the degrees of freedom
■ geometry of the links connecting the joints.

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Considerations in Mechanical Design of
Arm
■ Links have to be strong enough and stiff enough.
■ The lighter they are, the less load they place on the actuators.
■ As smaller actuator can be used, reducing the weight of the arm;
■ The closer the center of gravity of the arm is to the axis of the waist joint,
the less lateral stress is placed on the joint;
■ The capacity of the bearings to handle axial loads as well as normal
torques will determine the robot's ability to handle the situations.

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 End Effector/Gripper‫الماسكات‬/‫المؤثرات الطرفية‬

■ The end-effector is not considered as part of the robot’s manipulator.

■ An end-effector is a gripping mechanism or a tool attached to the end of
a robot arm used to make intentional (‫ )مقصود‬contact with an object or to
produce the robot's final effect on its surroundings to accomplish some
task.

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Tools

■ Tools are used in applications where the robot must perform some
processing operation on the work-part.
■ As working machines, robots have defined job duties and carry all the
tools they need to accomplish their tasks onboard (‫ )متن‬their bodies.
■ Many robots carry their tools at the end of a manipulator.
■ In each case, the robot must not only control the relative position of the
tool with respect to the work as a function of time, it must also control
the operation of the tool.

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Examples of Grippers

■ Mechanical grippers, in which the part is held between

mechanical fingers and the fingers are mechanically actuated
■ Vacuum grippers, in which suction cups are used to hold flat
objects
■ Magnetized devices, for holding ferrous parts
■ Adhesive devices(‫)أجهزة الصقة‬, where an adhesive substance is
used to hold a flexible material such as fabrics(‫)األقمشة‬.

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Grasping Force
■ The factors that determine the grasping force are:
■ - The weight of the object;
■ - Consideration of whether the part can be grasped about its center
of mass;
■ - The speed and acceleration with which the robot arm moves, and
the orientation relationship between the direction of movement and
the position of fingers on the object;
■ - Whether physical constriction (‫ )االنقباض المادي‬or friction is used to
hold the part;
■ - Coefficient of friction between the object and the gripper fingers.

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Robot programming languages

Three approaches to communicate with a robot are:

■ Discrete word recognition
■ Teach and play back
■ High – level programming languages
 Robot Languages
■ Microcomputer Machine Language Level: programs are written in machine language.
The level of programming is the most basic and is very efficient.
■ Point- to- point Level: in this level, the coordinates of the points are entered sequentially
and the robot follows the points as specified.
■ Primitive Motion Level (‫ ) مستوى حركة بدائي‬in this language, it is possible to develop more
sophisticated programs , including sensory information, branching and conditional
statements.
■ Structured Programming Level: most languages of this level are compiler based , are
powerful and allow more sophisticated programs.
■ Task-Oriented Level: Auto pass was proposed by IBM in 1980s, Auto pass was supposed
to be task oriented. This means that the user was simply to mention the task (not by
programming) , while the controller would create the necessary sequence.