Selection of Loads in the Design and Optimization of Manipulators of Portable Mobile Robots for Special Applications

Abstract

The construction of mobile robot manipulators for special applications must be optimized to achieve the required working capacity while maintaining a low mass. In the literature on the optimization of manipulator structures, the authors most often take into account the most unfavorable load case in their calculations or take into account several distinguished load cases resulting from the static or dynamic of the loaded manipulator. To optimize the design of a teleoperated robot manipulator, which during operation is exposed to contact with obstacles in an unstructured environment, the load analysis must be carried out in many aspects. The results of such analysis are used to select manipulator elements, e.g. drives, and to determine the loads for the design of the load-bearing structure and its optimization. The determined loads can be used to perform topological optimization of components of manipulators to minimize the mass while maintaining strength adapted to the operating conditions. Preliminary work on the preparation of a method for selecting such loads is presented.