The design and kinematic analysis of a modular manipulator

Abstract:

A new modular rotary joint characterized with compact module structure, light weight and large output torque had been developed, in which the motor, encoder and brake were arranged parallel to the axis. The modular joints could be assembled into different manipulators based on the needs benefiting from their standard mechanical and electrical interface. To settle the non-commonality of modular manipulator kinematics, the spatial configuration was converted to coordinate relations in plane geometry on account of matching configuration plane, so that the modular kinematics solution of manipulator was realized. Besides, a manipulator kinematics simulation platform was designed to obtain kinematics of manipulators with different configurations. Finally, a distributed control system was built to control the manipulators with various configurations assembled with the developed joint module.