Pajako: Mass Balancing of Delta Robots
In the project "Mass Balancing of Delta Robots" we develop methods to reduce frame vibrations of Delta Robots in order to bring their full potential into practical applications.
Dynamic manipulation tasks require lightweight yet stiff robotic systems, to achieve high efficiency. The most widely used parallel robot designed for these tasks is the Delta robot. However, in many industrial applications these robots must be operated at reduced speed to allow frame vibrations to decay and hereby, prevent unacceptably high vibrations. As a result, the full potential of Delta robots cannot be exploited. This project aims to address this problem, by the development and implementation of vibration reduction methods such as dynamic balancing or active vibration damping which shall be compared and validated on basis of experiments. To this end, a low-cost Delta robot designed to test vibration reduction methods in an industrial pick and place scenario, called the Suisui Bot has been developed.
Motivation
In previous projects, we have worked intensively on the optimization of Delta robots. The method we developed for optimizing the kinematics, dynamics and stiffness parameters enabled ever shorter cycle times and higher handling masses to be achieved in practical applications. However, it became more and more apparent that the ever-higher accelerations and the associated large loads acting on the robot frame and causing vibrations were becoming the new limiting factor in performance improvement. To meet this challenge, we have initiated a new research project in which we are working on minimizing frame vibrations.
Aim
The aim is to minimize frame vibrations in highly dynamic handling tasks and to reduce the requirements on the rigidity of the robot frames and in particular on the foundation at the installation site. This should make it possible to utilize the full potential of the Delta robots in practical applications.
Approach
This project aims to use vibration reduction methods such as dynamic mass balancing, trajectory optimization and active vibration damping to reduce frame vibrations. The suitability of the different approaches is validated by experiments. For this purpose, a low-cost delta robot called Suisui Bot has been developed.
Partner
Funding
Funded by the DAAD with funds from the German Federal Foreign Office