7-DOF Robot Control to Avoid Singularities in Tight Workspaces
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional six degrees of freedom (DOF) industrial robots often fail to achieve desired speed, accuracy, and safety in certain tasks due to limitations in kinematics and workspace flexibility.
Innovation Solution
The introduction of robots with seven or more DOF, achieved by adding additional arm segments and mounting the robotic arm on structures that provide additional degrees of freedom, such as a chassis with linear or rotational movements, allowing for improved kinematics and reduced weight through lighter materials and integrated motor controllers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a conventional 6 DOF robot is used, then the structure is simple and easy to control, but the robot cannot achieve desired speed, accuracy, and safety in certain tasks due to limitations in kinematics and workspace flexibility
Solution Approach 1:
The robotic arm is divided into multiple segments (first arm segment, second arm segment, third arm segment) with additional joints between them. This segmentation allows the robot to achieve greater workspace flexibility and adaptability by independently controlling each segment, resolving the contradiction between versatility and complexity through modular design
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds an additional degree of freedom by introducing a seventh joint that rotates the third arm segment about an axis. This dimensional addition expands the robot's workspace flexibility and kinematic capabilities beyond the conventional 6 DOF, allowing the robot to access previously unreachable configurations while maintaining manageable complexity through systematic joint arrangement
2Reliability
If additional arm segments and degrees of freedom are added to improve dexterity and reduce singularities, then the robot's flexibility and control are enhanced, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic control of seven joints with seven degrees of freedom, allowing the robotic arm to adaptively navigate around singularities in real-time. The dynamic joint configuration enables the system to maintain reliability by avoiding problematic configurations while managing the increased complexity through active control strategies
Solution Approach 2:
By changing the kinematic parameters from 6 DOF to 7 DOF, the patent fundamentally alters the robot's configuration space to eliminate singularities. This parameter change increases reliability by providing alternative paths in configuration space, while the systematic organization of joints and segments keeps the complexity increase manageable
Data Source
AI summary
A robot having seven or more degrees of freedom is disclosed. In various embodiments, the robot includes a positioning robot having m degrees of freedom and a manipulator robot having n degrees of freedom coupled to the positioning robot. The robot is configured to be operated in a first mode of operation, in which the positioning robot is controlled to position move the manipulator robot into a position to perform a task and the manipulator robot is controlled independently of the positioning robot to perform the task; and in a second mode of operation, in which at least a subset of the m degrees of freedom of the positioning robot and at least a subset of the n degrees of freedom of the manipulator robot are controlled together, by a single controller, to perform the task.