Material or article handling – Vertically swinging load support
Patent
1988-07-20
1990-02-27
Spar, Robert J.
Material or article handling
Vertically swinging load support
74479, 901 15, 901 28, 901 23, B25J 1700
Patent
active
049041487
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a robot arm usable for an industrial robot which can articulate to realize a pattern of movement including a high ability of movement, excellent reachability and high accuracy by virtue of a comparatively small amount of rotational movement and a comparatively large amount of translational movement and more particularly to a robot arm usable for an industrial robot which includes a plurality of pipe-shaped arm portions flexibly connected to one another via a plurality of joints serving as a joint member wherein these arm portions comprise one upper arm, at least one intermediate intermediate arm and one lower arm.
BACKGROUND ART
Generally, in a case where a variety of operations such as spray coating, paint applying operation, arc welding or the like are performed using an industrial robot, such a significant requirement that an arm of the industrial robot holding a tool such as an injection nozzle or the like should approach closer to an object (for instance, a vehicle) without an occurrence of collision with the object is imposed on the arm of the industrial robot. In some case, an object is permitted to move relative to the tool carried by the arm of the industrial robot during operation. In this case, the robot arm should have a possibility that it assumes a positional attitude which enables the object to move freely. To assure properties which satisfactorily meet the aforementioned requirement, an industrial robot is required to have a degree of freedom more than that required for positional displacement (translational movement) of a tool and rotation (adjustment of angle) of the same, that is, mobility. When it is assumed that a position and angle should be completely specified for a tool, there is a need of giving six degrees of freedom to the tool. By doing so, it follows that the industrial robot should have at least seven independent movements in view of the aforementioned requirement. A fact that the industrial robot has an extra degree of freedom means that it can be controlled so as to enable the tool to be held at a required relative position as well as a required relative angle with respect to an object, for instance, during rotation of the arm for enabling the latter to be kept away from some obstruction.
In addition, reachability of a certain industrial robot (properties relative to a range of operation) is dependent on an ability of movement of the industrial robot. In other words, individual components constituting the industrial robot are subjected to a geometrical restriction in the form of crosswise connection between movements of individual arm portions and mechanical final position.
Translational movement of a tool is performed mainly by means of the robot arm, while angular adjustment (rotation) of the tool is achieved by actuating a hand link on the robot. Usually, an industrial robot has three degrees of mobility and a hand link has two or three degrees of mobility. It is desirable that the hand link performs a possibly small amount of translational movement. On the other hand, it is preferable that the arm does not perform an excessive amount of rotation during a small amount of translational movement of the hand link.
Most industrial robots have five or six degrees of mechanically independent movements. For the purpose of realizing required reachability (properties relative to a range of operation), a robot is often placed on a moving track and this leads to a result that the robot can have mobility increased by one degree or in some case, by two degrees. Another measure for solving a problem concerning required reachability (properties relative to a range of operation) is to displace an object relative to a robot using, for instance, a rotational table and/or raising and lowering the table.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating a conventional industrial robot having eight degrees of mobility.
With respect to the conventional industrial robot, reachability (properties of a range of operation) can be increased by both a mo
REFERENCES:
patent: 4645509 (1987-02-01), Gorman
patent: 4651591 (1987-03-01), Wurst
patent: 4657472 (1987-04-01), Zimmer
patent: 4683406 (1987-07-01), Ikeda et al.
Kabushiki Kaisha Komatsu Seisakusho
Spar Robert J.
Underwood Donald W.
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