Choosing the right robotic design

Robots are designed for a mul­ti­tude of pur­pos­es. Depend­ing on the spe­cif­ic pur­pose for which a robot will be used, the inher­ent design is essen­tial for prop­er function.

The robot­ics design process begins with defin­ing the prob­lem or the task for which the robot will be used. The spe­cif­ic require­ments and pur­pose of con­struc­tion must be addressed before a design can be cre­at­ed. Next, research occurs to iden­ti­fy details of the task and prac­ti­cal func­tions, like how the robot will move, manip­u­late objects, sense, and obtain intel­li­gence. A pro­to­type can be cre­at­ed at this point to test and trou­bleshoot the design. Then, robot con­struc­tion can com­mence, and after it is built, it must be pro­grammed, test­ed, and eval­u­at­ed. If the robot accom­plish­es its des­ig­nat­ed tasks, the design was a success.

The design of indus­tri­al robots is cru­cial to speed up pro­duc­tion and out­put for man­u­fac­tur­ers. Two of the old­est prob­lems for indus­tri­al robots that need­ed to be addressed were the time it takes to engi­neer the robot dres­sout, and the down­time caused when the dres­sout is dis­rupt­ed by con­tact with plant equip­ment. Fanuc’s design team solved these prob­lems with the evo­lu­tion­ary design of the M‑20iA due to its hol­low upper arm and wrist. This allows the util­i­ties to be con­tained with­in the arm, elim­i­nat­ing dres­sout issues. Since the dres­sout and con­trol box­es can fit with­in the robot arm, offline sim­u­la­tions ben­e­fit as well. This design does not require any of the robot’s per­for­mance spec­i­fi­ca­tions to be sacrificed. 

Anoth­er issue indus­tri­al robots face is inter­fer­ence between robot tool­ing and the upper arm. Motoman address­es this issue by equip­ping their MH5F and MH5LF robot mod­els with a slim arm. This design also improves the B‑axis range of motion while short­en­ing the dis­tance between the B‑axis and the T‑axis. This pro­vides increased car­ry­ing capac­i­ty for the main func­tions of the mod­els, which include assem­bly, han­dling, machine tend­ing, and pack­ag­ing.

KUKA Robots are fea­tured in late 2013 in the Design Museum’s exhi­bi­tion ​“The Future is Here.” This exhi­bi­tion explores what dri­ves inno­va­tion and new man­u­fac­tur­ing tech­niques. The KUKA exhib­it fea­tures two AGILUS robots work­ing together. 

Some of the more inter­est­ing robot­ic designs devel­oped include the Humanoid Ever‑2 Android. It is a robot with the shape of a per­son that moves its entire body, makes facial expres­sions, and speaks. It can read to chil­dren and sing. The T‑Rot Robot­ic Bar­tender rec­og­nizes speech, picks up del­i­cate items by adjust­ing its grip, and deliv­ers items it is asked to get. The Wase­da Uni­ver­si­ty Flautist Robot actu­al­ly plays the flute with a per­fect ren­di­tion of ​“Flight of the Bumblebee.”

Robots​.com is a cer­ti­fied inte­gra­tor of indus­tri­al robots and can help you choose the right one for your facil­i­ty. Con­tact us today online or at 877−762−6881 for more infor­ma­tion about which robot­ic design is best for you.