Design of a High Stiffness Machining Robot Arm with Double Parallel Mechanism

기계가공작업을 위한 강성이 큰 2단 평행구조 로보트 암 설계

Industrial robot has played a central role in the production automation such as welding, assembling, and painting. There has been, however, little effort to the application of robots in machining work(grinding, cutting, milling, etc.) which is typical 3D work. The machining automation requires a high stiffness robot arm to reduce deformation and vibration. Conventional articulated robots have serially connecting links from the base to the gripper. So, they have very weak structure for he machining work. Stewart Platform is a typical parallel robotic mechanism with a very high stiffness but it has a small work space and a large installation space. This research proposes a new machining robot arm with a double parallel mechanism. It is composed of two platforms and a central axis. The central axis will connect the motions between the first and the second platforms. Therefore, the robot has a large range of work space as well as a high stiffness. This paper will introduce the machining work using the robot and design the proposed robot arm.