Tian Huang

e-mail: htiantju@public.tpt.tj.cn, th@eng.warwick.ac.uk

Zhanxian Li Meng Li
School of Mechanical Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China

Conceptual Design and Dimensional Synthesis of a Novel 2-DOF Translational Parallel Robot for Pick-and-Place Operations
This paper deals with the conceptual design and optimal dimensional synthesis of a novel 2-DOF translational parallel robot for pick-and-place operations. In a conceptual design phase, the conditions for generating such kinds of parallel robots are investigated, leading to the invention of a 2-D version of the Delta robot. Combining this robot with a 1-DOF feed mechanism, a hybrid robot can be created which is particularly suitable for transporting objects at very high speed in a plane plus a relatively slow or step-by-step, yet long distance motion, normal to the plane. The kinematic optimality of the 2-DOF translational parallel robot is achieved by minimizing a global and comprehensive conditioning index subject to a set of appropriate constraints. The application of this robot to the development of a device for quality inspection of rechargeable batteries is used to demonstrate its applicability. DOI: 10.1115/1.1711822

Derek G. Chetwynd
School of Engineering, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK

Clement M. Gosselin
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Laval University, Quebec, Canada

Introduction

In sectors such as electronics, packaging, pharmacy and many other light industries, there are a lot of circumstances where pickand-place operations are required for manipulating, inspecting, classifying and sorting the products. Frequently, the manipulated objects are light in weight and small in size. By questioning why one had to use a serial robot of nearly hundred kilograms to manipulate an object of only a few grams, Clavel came up with a breakthrough invention of a 3-DOF translational parallel mechanism named Delta 15, a fast parallel robot created using the properties of parallelograms. The use of base-mounted actuators and low-mass links makes the Delta robot an ideal candidate for high-speed pick-and-place operations of light objects within a cylindrical workspace of around 5:1 diameter/height ratio. Ever since, a great deal of effort has been devoted to the issues of type enumerations, kinematics, dynamics, control and calibration of parallel robots having a 3-DOF translational moving capability. The relevant literature along this line can be exemplied by recent publications 6 17 and many others. Although extensive research activities have been directed towards analysis, design and application of the Delta robot or its variants, it is quite surprising that little attention has been paid to its counterpart having a 2-DOF translational capability. As a matter of fact, this class of parallel robots may exhibit more exibility in many practical applications where: 1 the end-effector only needs to undergo purely translational motion in a plane; 2 the rst case plus a relatively slow or step-by-step, yet long distance motion, normal to that plane. In these circumstances, it may be more advantageous to use hybrid robots with serial-parallel architectures. This paper attempts to deal with the conceptual design of a class of 2-DOF translational parallel robots using the properties of parallelograms, leading to the invention of a 2-D version of the Delta robot patented with the name Diamond 18. This will be followed by the optimal dimensional synthesis of the robot via minimizing a comprehensive performance index subject to a set of
Contributed by the Mechanisms and Robotics Committee for publication in the JOURNAL OF MECHANICAL DESIGN. Manuscript received March 2003; revised October 2003. Associate Editor: M. Raghavan.

appropriate constraints. The results available for analysis and synthesis of parallel robots will be cited whenever necessary. An example of application of the proposed robot in the electrical battery industry will be used to demonstrate its applicability.

Conceptual Design

2.1 Proposed Idea. The preliminary condition for a 2-DOF parallel robot to possess a purely translational capability is that the joints connecting the movable platform with other adjacent moving bodies must be revolute joints. In fact, if a prismatic joint is used, a 2-DOF Cartesian robot with serial architecture see Fig. 1a is produced simply by adding another body that is allowed to move along the direction normal to the axis of the prismatic joint. However, this architecture does not belong to the family of parallel mechanisms. The joint type restriction leads to another condition necessary for the movable platform to retain a xed orientation with respect to the base. The movable platform together with three other moving bodies constitutes a parallelogram linked by four revolute joints and the side A 1 A 2 of the parallelogram on the movable platform should always keep parallel to a xed line B 1 B 2 on the base whatsoever the motions of the actuators may be see Fig. 1b. Consequently, if we limit our search within the architectures having two identical actuators situated on or near the base, four possible candidates for 2-DOF translational parallel mechanisms can be found as shown in Fig. 2. It is easy to see that architectures a and b are externally driven by two identical linear and rotary drives, respectively, while c and d are internally driven by two identical telescopic arms. Comparing with the layouts enumerated above, architecture b would be an ideal candidate for developing a 2-DOF translational robot for pick-and-place operations. This is because 1 the full use of revolute joints allows the fabrication cost to be much lower than that using linear drives; 2 the use of base-mounted actuators and low-mass links allows the movable platform to achieve a very high acceleration. Based upon the above idea, a 2D version of a Delta robot has been invented. As shown in Fig. 3a, the robot is composed of a base, a movable platform and two identical kinematic chains, each consisting essentially of two sets of parallelograms in each kineMAY 2004, Vol. 126 449

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Fig. 1 The necessary conditions for the movable platform to undergo the purely translational motion

matic chain. Driven independently by two servomotors situated on the base, the rotations of two active proximal links provide the movable platform with a 2-DOF purely translational moving capability in a plane. Referring to Fig. 3( b ), it is worthwhile pointing out that the passive proximal link, outer distal link and the bracket may be eliminated from either of the two kinematic chains because the omission changes neither the mobility of the robot nor the orientation of the movable platform. In fact, the use of these superabundant components is aimed at providing the robot with a set of passive constraints that 1 enable the static and dynamic behaviors of the system to be symmetrical with respect to the axis the y axis of geometrical symmetry of the structure; 2 eliminate, to some extent, the clearances in the mechanical joints; 3 improve the static and dynamic stiffness of the system; and 4 prevent the robot from the singularity caused by the near degeneration of the parallelograms in either of the two kinematic chains. These considerations are indeed useful for enhancing the performances of the robot in terms of stiffness and accuracy. 2.2 More Considerations in the Detailed Design. Figure 4 shows the 3D solid model of the newly invented 2-DOF parallel robot which has been patented with the name of Diamond 18. The following features have been included in the detail design of this robot. 1 An additional inner distal link is integrated into each kinematic chain. The integration can either be the form shown in the gure or be made in such a way that the two inner distal links constitute a structure by adding cross-members between them as stiffeners. With little increase in weight of the assembly, these additions allow the static and dynamic stiffness of the robot to be increased in the direction normal to the plane of motion.

2 Instead of using revolute joints, the commercialized spherical joints with small tilt angles can be used at both extremities of the passive proximal links, the outer distal links, and the extremities of the inner distal links connecting with the movable platform. The reason for the use of spherical joints in the above mentioned locations is to provide the robot with a set of local degrees of freedom that minimizes the effects caused by the misalignment in the assembly process without affecting the mobility of the system as a whole. 3 A linear drive can be integrated into the system in order to achieve a movement capability along the direction normal to the plane of motion of the mechanism. The linear drive could be a servomotor lead screw assembly in the current form, or a toothbelt transmission mechanism, a linear motor or any other equivalent. As a result, a 3-DOF translational hybrid robot can be created.

Kinematic Equations

In order to implement the dimensional synthesis, it is necessary to formulate the kinematic equations in terms of the inverse position and velocity analyses. Considering that the motions of the active and passive proximal links are identical, and so are those of three distal links thanks to the parallelogram structure, the kinematic model of the robot can be simplied as a 5-bar planar linkage as shown in Fig. 5. Here, the movable platform becomes a point O as it undergoes pure translation and the distance between two actuated joints becomes the difference of the dimensions of the movable and base. Thus, the closed-loop constraint equation associated with the i th kinematic chain can be written as r sgn i e e1 l 1 ui l 2 wi , i 1,2 (1)

Fig. 2 The possible candidates for generating 2-DOF translational robots having symmetrical drives

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Fig. 3 Sketches of the proposed 2-DOF translational robot a with the over constraints, b without the over constraints

where r ( x y ) T is the position vector of the reference point O of the movable platform; l 1 , l 2 , ui and wi are the lengths and unit vectors of the proximal and distal links; e is the distance from O to A i see Fig. 5, and ui cos 1 i sin 1 i T , e1 1 0 T , wi cos 2 i sin 2 i T

A i 2 l 1 y ,

B i 2 l 1 x sgn i e ,

2 C i x 2 y 2 e 2 l 2 1 l 2 2 sgn i ex

Thus, ui and wi can be determined by ui cos 1 i sin 1 i T , wi r sgn i e e1 l 1 ui / l 2 Differentiating Eq. 1 with respect to time, yields 1 i Qui l 2 2 i Qwi v l 1
1 Q 0 1 0

sgn i

1 1

i1 i2

where 1 i and 2 i are the position angles of the proximal and distal links, respectively. Taking 2-norm on both sides of Eq. 1 and considering the assembly mode, gives

(3)

1 i 2 arctan
where

A i sgn i A i2 C i2 B i2 C i B i

where is a 2 2 unit screw matrix. Pre-multiplying both sides of Eq. 3 by wiT and rewriting in matrix form, yields
1 1 J 1 J2 v Jv,

(2)

11 12 T

(4)

where J is the Jacobian and J1 , J2 are known as the direct and indirect Jacobian matrices, respectively.

Fig. 4 A 3-DOF hybrid robot using Diamond mechanism

Fig. 5 Kinematic model of the 2-DOF parallel robot

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Fig. 6 Singularity analysis

J1

wT 1 Qu1 0

0 wT 2 Qu2

J2 w1 w2 T

The investigation shows that when wi // ui and/or w1 // w2 , singularities occur as shown in Fig. 6. In what follows these singular congurations will be considered as the constraints in the optimum dimensional synthesis of the robot.

Optimum Dimensional Synthesis

required within a rectangular area of large width and modest height. It can be seen that there exists such a rectangle of width b and height h in W , which is located in such a way that it is tangential to the upper bound of W at the points P 1 and P 2 , and intersects with the lower bound of W at the corners Q 1 and Q 2 , respectively. We therefore dene this rectangle as the task workspace of the robot, denoted by W t . Accordingly, the following parametric relationships can be generated. On the upper bound of W : h H l 2 l 1 sin u 2 where H is the distance from the center of W t to O . On the lower bound of W : A sin u B cos u C 0 where A 2 H h /2 l 1 , B 2 b /2 e l 1 , (6) (5)

4.1 Workspace and Parametric Relationships. As shown in Fig. 7, let the range of the position angle of the proximal link be and its upper limit be u . Given u , , l 1 , l 2 and e , the reachable workspace W of the reference point O of the movable platform is the intersection of two subspaces associated with two kinematic chains due to the parallel format 2. Each subspace is the region encircled by two arcs with l 2 being the radius, and B i and B i being the centers as the corresponding position angle of the proximal link reaches its upper and lower limits. In many practical applications, positioning for pick-and place operations is

2 C b /2 e 2 H h /2 2 l 2 1 l 2

Hence, the scope of the optimum dimensional synthesis of the parallel robot being considered can be stated as: Given b and h of W t , determine l 1 , l 2 , e and H such that the optimality of a global performance can be achieved. 4.2 Objective Function. It has been well accepted that the most suitable local performance measures for evaluating the velocity, accuracy and rigidity mapping characteristics between the joint variables and the movable platform is the condition number of the Jacobian matrix 1927. The condition number, , is dened by 1

2 1

(7)

where 1 and 2 are the minimum and maximum singular values of the Jacobian associated with a given posture. 1 and 2 can be determined by solving the characteristic equation det 2 E2 JT J det 2 E2 JJT 0 (8)

where E2 denotes a unit matrix of order 2. For the considered parallel robot, let
v i2 wiT Qui 2 sin2 2 i 1 i 1 cos2 2 i 1 i 1 wiT ui 2
2 2 w 2 wT 1 w2 cos 22 21

(9)

Fig. 7 The workspace of the 2-DOF parallel robot

Then, the closed-form solution to can be obtained by Transactions of the ASME

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 w 1, then . This means that can indeed handle the singularities caused by w1 // w2 , w1 // u1 or w2 // u2 . However, further examination of Eq. 10 shows that if v 1 v 2 v c , then

1w 1w

1/2

(14)

This means that is independent of v c . Particularly, if v 1 0 and v 2 0 at the same rate ( u1 // w1 and u2 // w2 ), the corresponding conguration even corresponds to an isotropy ( 1) as long as w 0 ( w1 w2 ) in spite of the occurrence of the singularity due to the degeneration of the direct Jacobian. Therefore, the following constraint should be considered to ensure acceptable force transmission behavior of the robot
Fig. 8 Comparison of the performance of Robots A and B

min min ,

min min 1 2

(15)

2 2 2 2 2 1/2 v2 2 1 v 2 v 1 v 2 2 v 1 v 2 w 2 2 2 2 2 1/2 1 v2 1 v 2 v 1 v 2 2 v 1 v 2 w

1/2

(10)

Considering that varies with the conguration of the robot, a conditioning index similar to that proposed by Gosselin and Angeles 20 is used as one of the global performance measures to be minimized in the optimal dimensional synthesis of the robot. The index for this particular problem can be expressed by

Constraint 15 implies that good force transmission from the proximal link to the distal link requires that acute angle i arccosuiT wi ( i 1,2) between ui and wi exceeds some minimum allowable value at all points within W t . In practice, 35 40 would be a reasonable choice. It should be pointed out that the direct use of Eq. 15 in the optimization algorithm is time consuming due to the necessity of evaluating i ( i 1,2). Nevertheless, observation of Fig. 7 shows that the following parametric relationship between i and the design variables holds

dW t
dW t

Wt

1 bh

0.5b 0.5b

i arccos
0.5h

1 l 2 l 2 x 1 sgn i e 2 H y 1 2 , 2 l 1l 2 1 2 1 1 h y 1 h , 2 2 i 1,2 (16)

0.5h

dx 1 dy 1

(11)

Wt

1 1 b x 1 b , 2 2

where x 1 x , y 1 y H . It should be pointed out that itself could not give a full-scaled description of the overall global kinematic performance due to its incapability of describing the deviation between the maximum and minimum values of . It is easy to justify this claim by a simple one-dimensional problem. As shown in Fig. 8, let Curves A and B represent the variations of in W t 0.5 0.5 of Robots A and B , respectively. Then, the mathematical meaning of A and B can be interpreted as the mean value of , directly related to the area beneath the corresponding curves. It is obvious that A is smaller than B . However, it is hard to claim that Robot A has a better kinematic performance than Robot B because of the poor kinematic performance near the boundary. Thus, another conditioning index, noted by , should be considered max min (12)

Given l 1 , l 2 , e and H , the condition for i to take the minimum value is that its cosine is maximum. This leads to
1 x 1

or 2 x 1

e e b /2 b /2

i1 i2

y 1 h /2 y 1 h /2

i1 i2

(17)

Thus, Eq. 15 can be rewritten as

2 2 l2 1 l 2 2 l 1 l 2 cos H h /2 0 2 b /2 e 2 H h /2 2 l 2 1 l 2 2 l 1 l 2 cos 0

(18)

where min() and max() represent the minimum and maximum values of in W t . It can be seen that does place a penalty on the above mentioned deviation and thereby its minimization will produce a more at hypersurface of . Thus, in order to compromise the conict between and , the following global and comprehensive performance index is proposed as a cost function for minimization

Another constraint that should be taken into account is the workspace/machine volume ratio. For the currently considered parallel robot, the constraint in this phase can be set as 1 b 2 el1 (19)

2 w 2

(13)

to . where w is the weight being placed upon the ratio of

4.3 Constraints. In the optimal kinematic design of the parallel robot under consideration, a set of appropriate constraints regarding the force transmission behavior and workspace/machine volume ratio should be considered. In fact, observation of Eq. 10 reveals that is related to w 2 and v i2 . From Eq. 10 and Fig. 6, it is clear that if v 1 0 and v 2 0 while w 1 ( w1 // w2 ), then . Moreover, if either v 1 0 or v 2 0 but not the both ( u1 // w1 or u2 // w2 ) while Journal of Mechanical Design

where is a factor dominating the robot dimension relative to the size of the workspace. This reects that it is wasteful to have the outermost portion of the proximal arm be beyond the workspace region but since, also, the workspace should not extend much beyond that position, 1.11.2 would be the reasonable consideration. In addition, a constraint associated with the offset e should also be set such that e min e e max (20)

The reasons for setting this constraint are: 1 room should be made available for situating two servomotors on the base; and 2 the dimension of the base should be designed reasonably small in order to reduce its inertia when it serves as the carriage of a 3-DOF hybrid robot see Fig. 4. MAY 2004, Vol. 126 453

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Fig. 9 Variations of , and vs. H and

4.4 Implementation and Discussion. At this stage, the optimum dimensional synthesis of the 2-DOF parallel robot under consideration can be formulated as the following constrained nonlinear programming problem:

Fig. 10 A device for quality inspection of rechargeable batteries

x min subject to the constraints 18 20

x R 4

(21)

where x ( l 1 l 2 e H ) T . In computer implementation, this problem can be solved by the Sequential Quadratic Programming algorithm available in MATLAB Optimization Tool Box, and and can be calculated by 1 M N m1

mond parallel robot is designed as a rectangle of b 700 mm in width and h 150 mm in height to match the dimensions of the accompanying plate, transmission belt and the batteries to be inspected. A set of geometric and performance constraints are specied for the reasons mentioned above e min 60 mm, e max 80 mm,

1.15,

40

n1

mn

max mn min mn

(22)

Meanwhile, on the basis of the foregoing observations, the cost function given by Eq. 13 is used with w 1 such that

where mn is the value of evaluated at node ( m n ) of ( M 1) ( N 1) equally meshed W t . Without losing generality, let h / b . The value of can be taken around 0.20.25 for typically useful shape of the reachable workspace. Given 0.2, e min 0.10, e max 0.12,
40,

2 2 min
Minimizing this cost function nally results in l 1 244.35 mm, l 2 509.90 mm, e 60 mm H 433.9 mm,

w 1

and versus H 0.50.8 and Figure 9 shows the variation of 1.11.2 as is minimized by taking l 1 , l 2 and e as the design variables. The reason for doing this is to prevent the optimal solution from falling into a local minimum because the computational results show that is a non-convex function of H when it takes a relatively small value in the given domain. It can be seen from Fig. 9 that monotonically increases while basically decreases with the increase of H , which leads to a minimum value of when H 0.62 for w 1. This indeed validates the argument in the formulation of the cost function. Moreover, both and increase with the increase of , meaning that the attempt to achieve a smaller robot must be at expense of the kinematic performance. These observations are very useful for the optimum kinematic design of a parallel robot for a particular application.

2.1070,

max 2.0027, min min 40

min 1.3442,

Then, the range of the position angle of the proximal link and its upper limit u can be obtained using Eqs. 5 and 6

u 38.16,

122.3

Application

The proposed 3-DOF translational hybrid robot has been employed for the development of a brand new device for quality inspection of rechargeable batteries. The demand comes from battery industry where the products are required to be classied into ve grades according to the quality. With the aid of the proposed hybrid robot, this task can be completed by picking up the batteries arrayed on a rectangular accompanying plate and placing them onto the corresponding lanes of a transmission belt see Fig. 10. In this particular application, the path planning of the robot is arranged in such a way that the Diamond parallel robot is responsible for implementing the fast pick-and-place operation in a rowby-row manner while the 1-DOF feed mechanism is responsible for moving the Diamond parallel robot along the direction normal to the plane of fast motion. The task workspace W t of the Dia454 Vol. 126, MAY 2004

Utilizing the results of optimization, the distributions of and min in the normalized task workspace are evaluated as shown in Fig. 11. It can be seen that a good kinematic performance can be achieved by compromising the conict between and , and the force transmission behavior has been strictly controlled by setting 40. The result of 3-D solid model animation shows that no interference occurs in W t for this design thanks to the elaborately designed bracket. Currently, a prototype of the robot is being built by Tianjin University and the dynamic and control performances of the device are to be tested. These related issues, however, are best addressed by separate papers.

Conclusions

The conceptual design and optimal dimensional synthesis of a newly invented 2-DOF translational parallel robot have been investigated in this article. The following conclusions are drawn: 1. Utilizing the properties of parallelograms, a class of 2-DOF translational parallel robots has been proposed. Of these, the one with revolute joints would be most suitable for developing a highspeed and low-cost device for pick-and-place operations. Some considerations of practical applications have led to the invention of a 2-D version of Delta robot. This device can be incorporated with a 1-DOF feed mechanism, allowing a 3-DOF translational Transactions of the ASME

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Fig. 11 Distribution of the optimized kinematic performance a The condition number of the Jacobian; b The minimum pressure angle

hybrid robot to be created. The integration is particularly useful for transporting workpieces at very high speed in a plane together with a relatively slow or step-by-step long distance motion in the direction normal to that plane. 2. A global and comprehensive performance index for the kinematic optimization of the 2-DOF parallel robot has been proposed. This index has paid attention to both the mean value and range of the condition number of Jacobian matrix in the task workspace. Meanwhile, a set of appropriate constraints has been considered in terms of the force transmission behavior, the workspace/machine volume ratio, and the feasibility in practical implementation. In the proposed model, proper decisions must be made by the designers in choosing the weight of the cost function, the value of the minimum allowable pressure angle, and the upper and lower bounds of design variables according to the circumstance of a particular application. 3. The proposed robot has been employed for the development of a brand new device for quality inspection of rechargeable batteries in order to meet the demands from battery industry.

9 10 11 12 13 14

15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27

Acknowledgment
The research work is jointly sponsored by the 863 High-Tech SchemeGrant No.2001AA421220, NSFC Grant No. 50075059, the Royal Society UK-China Research GrantGrant No. Q82 and Tianjin Science and Technology Commission.

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