Design and Structural Analysis of Robot Arm for High Performance Packaging Robots

Abstract

Current packaging robots cannot achieve the required speed due to the use of heavy parts. Magnesium alloys with appropriate surface treatment may be used to replace the traditional steel or aluminum parts and therefore to reduce robot arm weight. In this work, different prototype designs were made to examine the feasibility of the application of light alloys for robot arm, in comparison to conventional materials. Finite element modelling (FEM) studies were performed for structural analysis. The results demonstrated that magnesium alloys has advantages over steel or aluminum alloys in terms of the ratio of modulus over density, and the stress and elastic deformation experienced during operation due to arm weight.