Title: Coarse and fine motion simulator between a magnetically levitated robot and an industrial robot

Authors: Susumu Tarao; Moein Mehrtash; Naoaki Tsuda; Mir Behrad Khamesee

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tokyo National College of Technology, Hachioji, Tokyo, Japan ' Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Wakayama National College of Technology, Gobo, Wakayama, Japan ' Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada

Abstract: Magnetically levitated robots are widely employed for non-contact manipulation that presents a great promise for using in the various special environments such as in a dust-free room, in a vacuum, in a flammable atmosphere, and in vivo. Meanwhile, they have a disadvantage of small working volume corresponding to the allowable air gap between the levitated object and the electromagnets. In some cases, to construct a combination of a magnetically levitated robot (which can generate a fine motion) and an industrial robot (which can generate a coarse motion and has a comparatively large working envelope) seems an effective way to expand the whole operational working space. On that premise, we are developing an experimental system and simulator for collaborative work between a magnetically levitated robot and an industrial robot. This paper presents the system concept and the configuration of the simulator, and the result of a preliminary simulation experiment which has been performed to evaluate mainly two elements: the numerical magnetically levitated robot model and the numerical industrial robot model.

Keywords: motion simulation; microrobotics; coarse motion; fine motion; collaborative robotics; robot collaboration; magnetically levitated robots; industrial robots; robot motion; operational working space; numerical modelling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMA.2014.066371

International Journal of Mechatronics and Automation, 2014 Vol.4 No.4, pp.269 - 280

Received: 05 Nov 2013
Accepted: 14 Mar 2014

Published online: 14 Jan 2015 *

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