Design and analysis of robot manipulators by integrated CAE procedures

Robots are the basic components of production sector. Computer aided engineering methods must be used effectively in the design process since the robot design has various parameters. In this study, for industrial robots, a design process in which the integrated engineering methods are employed, is considered and three different robots are designed following this process. Two of the designed robots have been manufactured and are ready for operation.The design of the trajectory is of great importance in order to use the robots efficiently. Great attention must be paid on trajetory design in order to reduce the end point deflections which occur at the stoppage, especially in high speed movements. In this study, the importance of the trajectory design is presented by experimental and numerical investigation of strains induced on an industrial robot.The robots have different structural stiffnesses for different positions since they are movable machines. In this study, a new concept which presents the changes in the stiffness for different positions of the robot within its workspace is presented. A new concept named as ?Rigidity Workspace? is investigated according to the end point static deflections and modal behaviour of the robot. A new proposal is made for the method of positional accuracy compansation which is performed for every industrial robot. Besides, the influence of the joint flexibility definition on real end point deflections and modal behavior of robot systems is investigated experimentally and numerically.