Title: Selection methodology for end-effectors of a modular system for wrist joints as parts of a reconfigurable parallel robot

Authors: Stefan Kurtenbach; Mathias Hüsing; Burkhard Corves

Addresses: Department of Mechanism Theory and Dynamics of Machines, RWTH Aachen University, Kackertstr 16-18 52072 Aachen, Germany ' Department of Mechanism Theory and Dynamics of Machines, RWTH Aachen University, Kackertstr 16-18 52072 Aachen, Germany ' Department of Mechanism Theory and Dynamics of Machines, RWTH Aachen University, Kackertstr 16-18 52072 Aachen, Germany

Abstract: This paper introduces a modular system consisting of a 3-DOF robotic local structure with revolute joints. Several different wrist joints are presented where the contact element is systematically varied. On one hand, the range of objects to be handled is analysed concerning the motion task (e.g., pick-and-place-task) and the objects properties. On the other hand, the properties of each contact principle can be considered. On a certain level, the object's properties can be related to those of the contact principles with the aim to identify a minimum set of contact principles for solving a given set of varying motion tasks. Realising these principles with one gripper each and defining general interfaces leads to a modular system, which ensures the versatility, flexibility and reconfigurability required for the introduced parallel handling system.

Keywords: modular systems; parallel robots; reconfigurability; robotic local structure; varying contact elements; 3-DOF robots; end effector selection; robot end effectors; wrist joints; reconfigurable robots; revolute joints; robot motion; robot grippers.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMRS.2016.081115

International Journal of Mechanisms and Robotic Systems, 2016 Vol.3 No.2/3, pp.156 - 174

Received: 25 Jul 2015
Accepted: 17 Mar 2016
Published online: 23 Dec 2016 *

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