Low-cost robot arm with 3-DOF counterbalance mechanism

Hwi Su Kim, Jae Bok Song

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

    34 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Low-cost but high performance robot arms are required for widespread use of service robots. Most robot arms use expensive motors and speed reducers to provide torques sufficient to support the robot mass and payload. If the gravitational torques due to the robot mass, which is usually much greater than the payload, can be compensated by some means, the robot would need much smaller torques, which can be delivered by cheap actuator modules. To this end, we propose a counterbalance mechanism which can completely counterbalance the gravitational torques due to the robot mass. Since most 6 DOF robots have 3 pitch joints, which are subject to gravitational torques due to the robot mass, we propose a 3 DOF counterbalance mechanism based on the double parallelogram mechanism, in which reference planes are provided to each joint for proper counterbalancing. A 5 DOF counterbalance robot arm was built to demonstrate the performance of the proposed mechanism. Simulation and experimental results showed that the proposed mechanism had effectively decreased the torque required to support the robot mass, thus allowing the prospective use of low-cost motors and speed reducers for high performance root arms.

    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publication2013 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2013
    Pages4183-4188
    Number of pages6
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2013
    Event2013 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2013 - Karlsruhe, Germany
    Duration: 2013 May 62013 May 10

    Publication series

    NameProceedings - IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation
    ISSN (Print)1050-4729

    Other

    Other2013 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ICRA 2013
    Country/TerritoryGermany
    CityKarlsruhe
    Period13/5/613/5/10

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Software
    • Control and Systems Engineering
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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