Four degrees of freedom robot gripper for assembly robots

SCARA robot를 위한 4자유도 end-effector 개발

A new end-effector has been devised and the problems resulted from using it with SCARA robots are discussed. The end effector has two modules: one composed of two ultrasonic motors and two encoders for controlling each finger, and the other module composed of two ultrasonic motors and two encoders for controlling the wrist. The wrist module adds two degrees of freedom to the SCARA type robot, which generally has four degrees of freedom. With independent finger actuation and touch sensors, the gripper under computer control can feedback information about part size and part presence. Ultrasonic motors with high torque and slow motion characteristics are used. The principle of ultrasonic motors is explained and the servo characteristics of ultrasonic motors are studied. They are controlled by the general motion controller (Hewlett Packard HCTL-1000) which is linked to an IBM-PC AT.