Title: Optimal trajectory and placement of a SCARA robot for natural yarns handling in the lattice distortion modification processing

Authors: Zina Zhu; Weiliang Xu; Zhuo Meng; Yize Sun

Addresses: College of Mechanical Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China; Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Auckland, Auckland 1142, New Zealand ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Auckland, Auckland 1142, New Zealand ' College of Mechanical Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China ' College of Mechanical Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China

Abstract: This paper presents an application of SCARA robot for handling the natural yarn tubes in the lattice distortion modification processing system. The aim is to find the optimal trajectory and placement of the robot when executing handling operation between the conveyor and treatment tank, with regard to the minimisation of travelling time, total energy and joint jerk together by taking into account dynamic equation of motion as well as bounds on joint displacements, velocities, accelerations, jerks and torques. The quaternion spherical linear interpolation and the quantic polynomial spline techniques are utilised to construct trajectory in the work space. Furthermore, the genetic algorithm (GA) with a penalty function to deal with nonlinear constraints is used to optimise the trajectories of the robot. A simulation on the robot trajectory optimisation is carried out finally. And the results show that the appropriate placement of robot makes better performance.

Keywords: optimal trajectory; robot placement; yarn handling; modification processing; lattice distortion; SCARA robots; quatemion spherical; quintic polynomial spline; multi-function; genetic algorithms; yarns; natural yarn tubes; robot handling; travelling time; total energy; joint jerks; dynamic equations of motion; joint displacement; velocity; acceleration; torque; nonlinear constraints; simulation; robot trajectories; robot motion; materials handling; textile industry.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMMS.2015.073058

International Journal of Mechatronics and Manufacturing Systems, 2015 Vol.8 No.3/4, pp.85 - 101

Received: 12 Aug 2013
Accepted: 31 May 2014

Published online: 16 Nov 2015 *

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