Module 1

Introduction
Robots are familiar to even a small kid. A Robot is a device capable of intelligent movements. The
field of Robotics is the branch of science that deals with robots,its environment and associated
components. There are many definitions for robots as they are comparatively newer structures.

British Robot Association: A reprogrammable device with minimum of four degrees of freedom
designed to both manipulate and transport parts , tools or specialized manufacturing implements
through variable programming motions for performance of specific manufacturing tasks

International Labor organization : Automatically controlled, reprogrammable, multipurpose

manipulator, programmable in three or more axes, which can be either fixed in place or mobile for
use in industrial automation applications

In Oxford Dictionary, Robot is a machine that can perform a complicated series of tasks by itself

Definitions- Robotics: Robotics is the art, knowledge base, and the know—how of designing,
applying, and using robots in human endeavours. Robotic systems consist of not just robots, but also
other devices and systems used together with the robots. Robots may be used in manufacturing
environments, in underwater and space exploration, for aiding the disabled, or even for fun. In any
capacity, robots can be useful, but they need to be programmed and controlled. Robotics is an
interdisciplinary subject that benefits from mechanical engineering, electrical and electronic
engineering, computer science, cognitive sciences, biology, and many other disciplines.

Contrary to popular notions about robots in the science fiction literature, today’s industrial
robots are not androids built to impersonate humans. Indeed, most are not even capable of self-
locomotion. However, many of today‘s robots are anthropomorphic in the sense that they are
patterned after the human arm. Consequently, industrial robots are often referred to as robotic arm:
or, more generally, as robotic manipulators.

Introduction to robotics: [Link]

Types of Robots- Manipulators, Mobile Robots-wheeled & Legged

Robots, Aerial Robots
 Robot manipulator Wheeled Robots

Legged Robots Aerial Robots

Robot manipulators: This is the classical robot structure and popular in industrial applications. This
is analogous to human arm so also called as robotic arm. According the motion of each joints, one
can obtain desired motions.

Wheeled Robots: The wheels are known to be a magical product of our scientific development. The
wheeled robots integrated wheels to our robotic concept. Widely used for high speed navigation,
this shape is used in our space missions and other complicated applications. Remember Pragyan, our
rover in Chandrayan, was a wheeled robot!!

Legged Robots: Legged robots is a product of the conventional belief that a robot should look like
human being. The advantage of legs to navigate in complex terrains made this kinds of robots very
attractive to robot enthusiasts

Aerial robots: Aerial robots have the advantages of navigating long distance in short time and
normally used in surveillance and photography applications.

Anatomy of Robots
Anatomy of a robotic manipulator-links, joints, actuators, sensors,
controller; open kinematic vs closed kinematic chain; degrees of
freedom

Fig1: Joint, link and tool Fig 2: Base, Arm, Wrist, End effector and work
piece

Links

The mechanical structure of a robotic manipulator is a mechanism, whose members are rigid links or
bars
Binary Link
Figure shows two rigid binary links, 1 and 2, each with two holes at the ends A, B, and C, D,
respectively to connect with each other or to other links.
Links are connected by articulations called joints, which is segmented into an arm which ensures
mobility & reachability
Two links are connected together by a joint.

Joints

Robot anatomy, joints and link

A joint connects two or more rigid bodies or links in a way as to permit relative motion between
them.

Spherical joint

Cylindrical joint

Actuators: Actuators are the “muscles” of the manipulators. The controller sends signals to the
actuators, which, in turn, move the robot joints and links. Common types are servomotors, stepper
motors, pneumatic actuators, and hydraulic actuators. Other novel actuators are used in specific
situations. Actuators are under the control of the controller.

Sensors: Sensors are used to collect information about the internal state of the robot or to
communicate with the outside environment. As in humans, the robot controller needs to know the
location of each link of the robot in order to know the robot’s configuration. When you wake up in
the morning, even without opening your eyes, or when it is completely dark, you still know where
your arms and legs are. This is because feedback sensors in your central nervous system embedded
in muscle tendons send information to the brain. The brain uses this information to determine the
length of your muscles and, consequently, the state of your arms, legs, and so on. The same is true
for robots, where sensors integrated into the robot send information about each joint or link to the
controller that determines the configuration of the robot. Still similar to your major senses of sight,
touch, hearing, taste, and speech, robots are equipped with external sensory devices such as a vision
system, touch and tactile sensors, speech synthesizer, and the like that enable the robot to
communicate with the outside world.

Exteroceptors(External) Vs Proprioceptors(internal)

Controller: The controller is rather similar to your cerebellum; although it does not have the power
of the brain, it still controls your motions. The controller receives its data from the computer (the
brain of the system), controls the motions of the actuators, and coordinates the motions with the
sensory feedback information. Suppose that in order for the robot to pick up a part from a bin, it is
necessary that its first joint be at 35°. If the joint is not already at this magnitude, the controller will
send a signal to the actuator—a current to an electric motor, air to a pneumatic cylinder, or a signal
to a hydraulic servo valve— causing it to move. It will then measure the change in the joint angle
through the feedback sensor attached to the joint (a potentiometer, an encoder, etc.). When the
joint reaches the desired value, the signal is stopped. In more sophisticated robots, the velocity and
the force exerted by the robot are also controlled by the controller.

Processor: The processor is the brain of the robot. It calculates the motions of the robot’s joints,
determines how much and how fast each joint must move to achieve the desired location and
speeds, and oversees the coordinated actions of the controller and the sensors. The processor is
generally a computer, which works like all other computers, but is dedicated to this purpose. It
requires an operating system, programs, peripheral equipment like a monitor, and has the same
limitations and capabilities. In some systems, the controller and the processor are integrated
together into one unit. In others, they are separate units, and in some, although the controller is
provided by the manufacturer, the processor is not; they expect the user to provide his or her
processor.

End effector: This part is connected to the last joint (hand) of a manipulator that generally handles
objects, makes connections to other machines, or performs the required tasks. Robot manufacturers
generally do not design or sell end effectors. In most cases, all they supply is a simple gripper.
Generally, the hand of a robot has provisions for connecting specialty end effectors specifically
designed for a purpose. This is the job of a company’s engineers or outside consultants to design and
install the end effector on the robot, and to make it work for the given situation. A welding torch, a
paint spray gun, a glue laying device, or a parts handler are but a few possibilities. In most cases, the
action of the end effector is either controlled by the robot’s controller, or the controller
communicates with the end effector’s controlling device (such as a PLC).

Open kinematic Vs Closed kinematic Chain

Closed Kinematic chain

Kinematic chain lecture

Assembly of links in which relative motion between the links is possible and the motion is
constrained is a kinematic chain.

Condition for a kinematic chain : First link connected to last link.

Closed kinematic chain :

o No external force required

o Only mechanical connection between links
o Motion is only the required motion
o Eg: Enclosed cam and follower

Open kinematic chain :

o External force required

o Eg: Cam and spring loaded follower

Robot Degrees of Freedom

6 DOF

In order to locate a point in space, one needs to specify three coordinates (such as the x-, y-,
z—coordinates along the three Cartesian axes). Three coordinates are necessary and enough to
completely define the location of the point. Although different coordinate systems may be used to
express this information, they are always necessary. However, neither two nor four will be possible;
two is inadequate to locate a point in space, and four is impossible. There is simply too much
information. Similarly, if you consider a three- dimensional device that has 3 degrees of freedom
within the workspace of the device, you should be able to place the device at any desired location.

For example, a gantry (x,y,z) crane can place a ball at any location within its workspace as
specified by the operator. Similarly, to locate a rigid body (a three-dimensional object rather than a
point) in space, we need to specify the location of a selected point on it; therefore, it requires three
pieces of information to be located as desired. However, although the location of the object is
specified, there are infinite possible ways to orientate the object about the selected point. To fully
specify the object in space, in addition to the location of a selected point on it, we need to specify
the orientation of the object as well. This means that six pieces of information are needed to fully
specify the location and orientation of a rigid body. By the same token, there need to be 6 degrees
of freedom available to fully place the object in space and orientate it as desired.
 For this reason, robots need to have 6 degrees of freedom to freely place and orientate
objects within their workspace. A robot that A has 6 degrees of freedom can be requested to place
objects at any desired location and orientation. If a robot has fewer degrees of freedom, we cannot
arbitrarily specify any location and orientation for the robot; it can only go to places and to
orientations that the fewer joints allow.

To demonstrate this, consider a robot with 3 degrees of freedom, where it can only move
along the x-, y—, and z—axes. In this case, no orientation can be specified; all the robot can do is to
pick up the part and move it in space parallel to the reference axes. The orientation always remains
the same. Now consider another robot with 5 degrees of freedom, capable of rotating about the
three axes, but only moving along the x— and y-axes. Although you may specify any orientation
desired, the positioning of the part is only possible along the x— and y-, but not z-axes. The same is
true for any other robot configurations.

System with 7 degrees of freedom would not have a unique solution. This means that if a
robot has 7 degrees of freedom, there are infinite ways it can position a part and orientate it at the
desired location. In order for the controller to know what to do, there must be some additional
decision-making routine that allows it to pick only one of the infinite solutions. As an example, we
may use an optimization routine to pick the fastest or the shortest path to the desired destination.
Then the computer has to check all solutions to find the shortest or fastest response and perform it.
Due to this additional requirement, which can take much computing power and time, no 7-degree of
freedom robot is used in industry. A similar issue arises when a manipulator robot is mounted on a
moving base such as a mobile platform or a conveyor belt. In either case, the robot has an additional
degree of freedom, which, based on the above discussion, is impossible to control. The robot can be
at a desired location and orientation from infinite distinct positions on the conveyor belt or the
mobile platform. However, in this case, although there are too many degrees of freedom, the
additional degrees of freedom are known and there is no need to solve for them.

Robot considerations for an application- number of axes, work

volume, capacity & speed, stroke &reach, Repeatability, Precision
and Accuracy, Operating environment, point to point control or
continuous path control.

ROBOT CLASSIFICATION

In order to refine the general notion of a robotic manipulator, it is helpful to classify manipulators
according to various criteria such as drive technologies, work envelope geometries, and motion
control methods.

Drive Technologies
One of the most fundamental classification schemes is based upon the source of power used to drive
the joints of the robot. The two most popular drive technologies are electric and hydraulic. Most
robotic manipulators today use electric drives in the form of either DC servomotors or DC stepper
motors. However, when high-speed manipulation of substantial loads is required, such as in molten
steel handling or auto body part handling, hydraulic-drive robots are preferred. One serious
drawback of hydraulic-drive robots lies in their lack of cleanliness, a characteristic that is important
for many assembly applications.
Both electric-drive robots and hydraulic-drive robots often use pneumatic tools or end-effectors,
particularly when the only gripping action required is a simple open-close type of operation. An
important characteristic of air-activated tools is that they exhibit built-in compliance in grasping
objects, since air is a compressible fluid. This is in contrast to sensorless rigid mechanical grippers,
which can easily damage a delicate object by squeezing too hard.

Work-Envelope Geometries
The end-effector, or tool, of a robotic manipulator is typically mounted on a flange or plate secured
to the wrist of the robot. The gross work envelope of a robot is defined as the locus of points in
three-dimensional space that can be reached by the wrist. We will refer to the axes of the first three
joints of a robot as the major axes. Roughly speaking, it is the major axes that are used to determine
the position of the wrist. The axes of the remaining joints, the minor axes, are used to establish the
orientation of the tool. As a consequence, the geometry of the work envelope is determined by the
sequence of joints used for the first three axes. Six types of robot joints are possible.

However, only two basic types are commonly used in industrial robots, and they are listed.

TYPES OF ROBOT JOINTS

1. Revolute joints (R) exhibit rotary motion about an axis. They are the most common type of joint.

2. Prismatic joint (P), which exhibits sliding or linear motion along an axis.

Configuration of robot anatomy

Types of Robot

The particular combination of revolute and prismatic joints for the three major axes
determines the geometry of the work envelope, as summarized

P = prismatic, R = revolute.

Cartesian coordinate robot is referred to as a gantry robot.

Figure Cartesian robot.

Configuration RPP, produces a cylindrical-coordinate robot.

The work envelope generated by this joint configuration is the volume between two vertical
concentric cylinders.

Figure Cylindrical robot.

Configuration RRP, produces a spherical-coordinate robot.

The work envelope generated is the volume between two concentric spheres.

Figure Spherical robot.

Like a spherical-coordinate robot, a SCARA robot (Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm) also
has two revolute joints and one prismatic joint (in the configuration RRP) to position the wrist. The
shape of a horizontal cross section of the work envelope of a SCARA robot can be quite complex,
depending upon the limits on the ranges of travel for the first two axes.

Figure SCARA robot.

When the last remaining prismatic joint is replaced by a revolute joint (to yield the configuration
RRR), this produces an articulated-coordinate robot. An articulated-coordinate robot is the dual of a
Cartesian robot in the sense that all three of the major axes are revolute rather than prismatic. The
articulated-coordinate robot is the most anthropomorphic configuration; that is, it most closely
resembles the anatomy of the human arm. Articulated robots are also called revolute robots. Create
a complex work envelope, with a side—view cross section typically being crescent-shaped.

Figure Articulated robot.

Motion Control Methods
Another fundamental classification criterion is the method used to control the movement of the
end-effector or tool.

The two basic types of movement are listed.

The first type is point-to-point motion, where the tool moves to a sequence of discrete points in the
workspace. The path between the points is not explicitly controlled by the user. Point-to-point
motion is useful for operations which are discrete in nature. For example, spot welding is an
application for which point-to-point motion of the tool is all that is required.

The other type of motion is continuous-path motion, sometimes called controlled-path motion. Here
the end-effector must follow a prescribed path in three-dimensional space, and the speed of motion
along the path may vary.

ROBOT SPECIFICATIONS
While the drive technologies, work-envelope geometries, and motion control methods provide
convenient ways to broadly classify robots, there are a number of additional characteristics that
allow the user to further specify robotic manipulators. Some of the more common characteristics are
listed in Table 1-6.
Number of Axes
Each robotic manipulator has a number of axes about which its links rotate or along which its links
translate. Usually, the first three axes, or major axes, are used to establish the position of the wrist,
while the remaining axes are used to establish the orientation of the tool or gripper, as shown in
Table 1-7. Since robotic manipulation is done in three-dimensional space, a six-axis robot is a general
manipulator in the sense that it can move its tool or hand to both an arbitrary position and an
arbitrary orientation within its workspace. The mechanism for opening and closing the fingers or
otherwise activating the tool is not regarded as an independent axis, because it does not contribute
to either the position or the orientation of the tool. Practical industrial robots typically have from
four to six axes. Of course, it is possible to have manipulators with more than six axes. The
redundant axes can be useful for such things as reaching around obstacles in the workspace or
avoiding undesirable geometrical configurations of the manipulator.

Capacity and Speed

 Load-carrying capacity varies greatly between robots.
 Depends on: Robot size, configuration, type of drive system, application.
 Ranges from a few grams to several thousand kilograms.
 Maximum load carrying capacity specified at its weakest position.( Usually when arm is at
maximum horizontal extension)
  The maximum tool-tip speed can also vary substantially between manipulators.
 Varies from a few mm/s to several m/s.
 Speed measured at robot wrist.
 Drive system affects joint speeds.
 Highest speeds achieved at maximum horizontal extension of arm.
 Meaningful measure of robot speed is cycle time. (Time to perform several periodic motions
of robot)

Although the load-carrying capacities and maximum operating speeds of robots vary by several
orders of magnitude, it is, of course, the mix of characteristics that is important when selecting a
robot for a particular application. In some cases, a large load-carrying capacity may not be necessary,
while in other cases accuracy may be more important than speed. Clearly, there is no point in paying
for additional characteristics that are not relevant to the class of applications for which the robot is
intended.

Reach and Stroke

The reach and the stroke of a robotic manipulator are rough measures of the size of the work
envelope. The horizontal reach is defined as the maximum radial distance the wrist mounting flange
can be positioned from the vertical axis about which the robot rotates. The horizontal stroke
represents the total radial distance the wrist can travel. Thus, the horizontal reach minus the
horizontal stroke represents the minimum radial distance the wrist can be positioned from the base
axis. Since this distance is nonnegative, we have:

Stroke < reach

For example, the horizontal reach of a cylindrical-coordinate robot is the radius of the outer cylinder
of the work envelope, while the horizontal stroke is the difference between the radii of the
concentric outer and the inner cylinders.

The vertical reach of a robot is the maximum elevation above the work surface that the wrist
mounting flange can reach. Similarly, the vertical stroke is the total vertical distance that the wrist
can travel. Again, the vertical stroke is less than or equal to the vertical reach.

For example, the vertical reach of a cylindrical robot will be larger than the vertical stroke if the
range of travel of the second axis does not allow the wrist to reach the work surface. One of the
useful characteristics of articulated robots lies in the fact that they often have full work envelopes, in
the sense that the stroke equals the reach. However, this feature gives rise to a need for
programming safeguards, because an articulated robot can be programmed to collide with itself or
the work surface.

Tool Orientation

While the three major axes of a robot determine the shape of the work envelope, the remaining
axes determine the kinds of orientation that the tool or hand can assume. If three independent
minor axes are available, then arbitrary orientations in a three-dimensional workspace can be
obtained. A number of conventions are used in the robotics literature to specify tool orientation. The
tool orientation convention that will be used here is the yaw-pitch-roll (YPR) system. Yaw, pitch and
roll angles have long been used in the aeronautics industry to specify the orientation of aircraft. They
can also be used to specify tool orientation,
To specify tool orientation, a mobile tool coordinate frame M = {m', m2, m3} is attached to the tool
and moves with the tool. Here m3 is aligned with the principal axis of the tool and points away from
the wrist. Next, m2 is parallel to the line followed by the fingertips of the tool as it opens and closes.
Finally, m' completes the right-handed tool coordinate frame M. By convention, the yaw, pitch, and
roll motions are performed in a specific order about a set of fixed axes. Initially, the mobile tool
frame M starts out coincident with a fixed wrist coordinate flame F = {f‘, f 2, f 3} attached at the end
of the forearm. First the yaw motion is performed by rotating the tool about wrist axis f ‘. Next, the
pitch motion is performed by rotating the tool about wrist axis f 2. Finally, the roll motion is
performed by rotating the tool about wrist axis f 3. In each case positive angles correspond to
counter clockwise rotations as seen looking along the axis back toward the origin.

Definition: Spherical Wrist. A robot has a spherical wrist if and only if the axes used to orient the
tool intersect at a point. The robot wrist shown in Fig. 1-9 is an example of a spherical wrist because
the three axes used to orient the tool, {m‘, m2, m3}, intersect at a point. More generally, if a robot
possesses fewer than three axes to orient the tool, then it can still have a spherical wrist. However,
in these cases the spherical wrist will not be a general spherical wrist, because. with fewer than
three axes, some orientations of the tool cannot be achieved. Spherical wrists are useful because
they simplify the mathematical descriptions of robotic manipulators.

Repeatability, Precision. and Accuracy

Repeatability is another important design characteristic. Repeatability is a measure of the ability of

the robot to position the tool tip in the same place repeatedly. On account of such things as backlash
in the gears and flexibility in the links, there will always be some repeatability error, perhaps on the
order of a small fraction of a millimetre for a well-designed manipulator.

Closely related to the notion of repeatability is the concept of precision. The precision of a robotic
manipulator is a measure of the spatial resolution with which the tool can be positioned within the
work envelope. For example, if the tool tip is positioned at point A in Fig. 1-10 and the next closest
position that it can be moved ' to is B, then the precision (along that dimension is the distance
between A and B.

More generally, in three-dimensional space the robot tool tip might be positioned anywhere on a
three-dimensional grid of points within the workspace. Typically, this grid or lattice of points where
the tool tip can be placed is not uniform. The overall precision of the robot is the maximum distance
between neighbouring points in the grid. For example, an interior grid point of a Cartesian-
coordinate robot will have eight neighbours in the horizontal plane plus nine neighbouring grid
points in the planes above and below. One of the virtues of a Cartesian-coordinate robot is that the
precision is uniform throughout the work envelope; the state of one axis does not influence the
precision along another axis. However, this is not the case for other types of robots, where the
overall precision is decomposed into horizontal and vertical components.

For a spherical-coordinate robot, both the horizontal precision and the vertical precision are highest
along the inside surface and lowest along the outside surface of the work envelope. For SCARA
robots, the horizontal precision varies, but the vertical precision is uniform. It is this feature,
together with its open work-envelope, that makes the SCARA robot useful for light assembly work
such as the vertical insertion of electrical components into circuit boards. With articulated robots,
both the horizontal precision and the vertical precision vary over the work envelope.

An alternative way to specify the precision of a robot is to specify the precision of the
individual joints. Clearly this is easier to analyse, although it is perhaps less useful. The precision or
spatial resolution of an individual joint is affected by the drive system, the position sensors, and the
power transmission mechanism, including gears, sprockets, and cables.

The accuracy of a robotic manipulator is a measure of the ability of the robot to place the
tool tip at an arbitrarily prescribed location in the work envelope. Robotic arm accuracy is not nearly
as easy to analyse as precision. Accuracy depends, for example, on such things as gear backlash and
elastic deformations in the links due to loading. However, a simple bound can be placed on the error
or inaccuracy, in terms of the precision, namely:

Clearly, if the precision of the robot dictates that only a discrete grid of points can be visited
within the work envelope, then the accuracy with which an arbitrary point can be visited is, at best,
half of the grid size, as shown in Fig. 1-10. In general, the accuracy will not be that good. For
example, the robot may gradually drift out of calibration with prolonged operation. To maintain
reasonable accuracy, robots are periodically reset or zeroed to a standard hard home position using
limit switch sensors.

Although robotic manipulators are not nearly as accurate as their more expensive and more
specialized hard automation counterparts, they do provide increased flexibility. It is one of the great
challenges of robotics to make use of this increased flexibility to compensate for less than perfect
accuracy. In particular, clever algorithms and control strategies are needed that make use of external
sensors to compensate for uncertainties in the environment and the uncertainties in the exact
position of the robot itself.
Operating Environment

The operating environments within which robots function depend on the nature of the tasks
performed. Often robots are used to perform jobs in harsh, dangerous, or unhealthy environments.
Examples include the transport of radioactive materials, spray painting, welding, and the loading and
unloading of furnaces. For these applications the robot must be specifically designed to operate in
extreme temperatures and contaminated air. In the case of paint spraying, a robotic arm might be
clothed in a shroud in order to minimize the contamination of its joints by the airborne paint
particles.

At the other extreme of operating environments are clean room robots. Clean room robots
are used in the semiconductor manufacturing industry for such tasks as the handling of silicon
wafers and photomasks. Specialized equipment has to be loaded and unloaded at the various clean
room processing stations. Here the robot is operating in an environment in which parameters such
as temperature, humidity, and airflow are carefully controlled. In this case it is the robot itself that
must be designed to be very clean so as to minimize the contamination of work pieces by submicron
particles. Some clean room robots are evacuated internally with suction in order to scavenge
particles generated by friction surfaces. Others use special non-shedding materials and employ
magnetic washers to hold ferromagnetic lubricant in place.

Robot Applications- medical, mining, space, defence, security,

domestic, Entertainment
Hazardous Environment:

(i) Mining:1. Exploration. 2. Search and rescue. [Link] for main road ways. [Link] in
short passage.

(ii) Service: 1. Fire Fighting. 2. Underground cleaning.

(iii) Nuclear: Maintenance of atomic reactors.

(iv) Space: Used in space vehicles.

(v) Under sea: 1. Oil / mineral exploration

Medical:1. [Link]-invasive / invasive diagnostics. 3. Rehabilitation engineering for

handicapped.

Distribution:1. Wearhouseing.2. Retailing.

Others: 1. Agricultural purpose. [Link] / household purpose. 3. Military applications of robot

maybe in both manufacturing and non-manufacturing area.

[Link] vehicle. 2. Space robotics. 3. Humanoid and walking robots. 4. Personal and service
robots. 5. Robots for biological applications. [Link] for medical applications. 7. Sensor integrated
intelligent robot and for health care − sometimes called network robot.

Industrial Applications-Material handling, welding, Spray painting,

Machining.
Material handling:

[Link] [Link] [Link] of components / [Link] /

[Link] components

Machine loading / unloading:

[Link] parts to CNC machine [Link] a punch [Link] a die casting

[Link] electron beam [Link] / orientating parts to transfer
[Link] parts on the test machine

Spray painting:[Link] of trucks / [Link] of agricultural [Link]

of appliance components.

Welding:[Link] [Link] [Link] welding of variable width

Machining:1. Drilling2. Welding3. Forging4. Cutting5. Sanding6. Grinding7. Deburring

Assembly:[Link] [Link] small assemblies.

Inspection:[Link] process measuring and quality [Link] of missing parts.

Electronic assembly

Material removal