A new hybrid machine design for a 6 DOF industrial robot arm

Abstract

Industrial robot arms are an essential part of automated manufacturing. They automate tasks such as component assembly, welding, light machining and spray painting due to their repeatability, speed and accuracy. The serial industrial robot arm architecture is the most ubiquitous in modern day manufacturing as its technology is mature; the machine architecture provides extreme dexterity and it has a large useful workspace. This architecture however does have some problems; first the machine mass distribution is not efficient as that mass is spread throughout the arm, and the arm itself contains significant inertia, which also leads to some inaccuracy and dynamic vibration problems. The reason for this lies in the location of the motors. This paper focuses on the conceptual design of a novel robotic arm having a hybrid nature, as its architecture departs from both the classic definitions of Serial Kinematics Machines (SKMs) and Parallel Kinematics Machines (PKMs).