The Design of Flexible Robotic Manipulators with Optimal Arm Geometries Fabricated from Composite Laminates with Optimal Material Properties

Abstract

The fabrication of lightweight robot arms in composite mate rials and the ability of robotic devices to dissipate residual vibrations at the termination of a maneuver have both been highlighted as key research problems in a recent report pub lished by the U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assess ment. Both problems are addressed here. We develop a method for optimally configuring the geometry and the mate rial fabrication parameters of hollow box members for robo tic manipulators constructed with composite laminates. We do it by integrating a formulation for laminated beams with a recent approach for predicting the damping characteristics of laminates before incorporating this general theory into an optimization algorithm, which permits general constraint conditions to be imposed on the solution procedure. To illustrate the proposed design methodology, we give an example of an industrial manipulator with flexible links that describes three-dimensional motion. We make a comparative study of the initial robot and optimal designs to simulate the elastodynamic behavior of the end-effectors for a prescribed maneuver. The results of the finite element simulations clearly demonstrate the superior response of the proposed optimal design.