Publication
Design Analysis of a Novel Belt-Driven Manipulator for Fast Movements
Christoph Stoeffler; Janne Janzen; Adriano del Río; Heiner Peters
In: 2024 IEEE 20th International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE). IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE-2024), located at 20th International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE), August 28 - September 1, Bari, Puglia, Italy, IEEE XPlore, 2024.
Abstract
In this work, we propose a new four-degree-of-freedom (4-DOF) manipulator design involving belt transmissions and direct drives at the proximal end of the manipulator. This results into a backlash free, low-inertia arm enabling fast movements. Additionally, the belt routing inside the arm distributes actuator torques beneficially to the joints and allows the use of identical motors under dissimilar joint torque requirements. While the kinematics of the arm and the
separation of actuation and joint space are discussed in detail, we also show beneficial properties for dynamic movements of the manipulator. To obtain optimal motion trajectories, an iterative Linear-Quadratic Regulator (iLQR) was implemented and is compared against a traditional trajectory creation in
joint- and actuation space. Furthermore, a stiffness model of the belts in joint- and actuation-space is given to assess a modal analysis in the early design phase.