Indian Journal of Science and Technology

Abstract

Background/Objectives: The implementation of a method for the characterization of polar (or spherical) robot manipulators for arc welding applications, based on the usage of mechanical simulation software to predict the behavior of the main kinetic variables of said mechanism, previous to its physical elaboration. Methods: With the application of simulation software, kinetic variables of a polar robot manipulator, such as velocities and accelerations, were determined using a commercial simulation package; to validate the simulation results, these were compared by the results given by the application of the theoretical model used for the study of polar manipulators, which is available in the literature. Findings: The results obtained by using the simulation package, shared the same behavior as the results obtained through the application of the theoretical model, with a little deviation from the theoretical results (less than 5%). Besides that, the simulation model allowed to obtain results to a higher speed than the solution of theoretical equations (harder to solve at hand) with the same accuracy, which is an important parameter when optimization processes are required. Application: To develop a tool for the kinetic analysis of polar robot manipulators for arc welding applications, using simulation software.

Keywords: Kinetic Analysis, Lagrange Equations, Polar Robot Manipulator, Robotics, Simulation Software