An Integrated Design and Simulation Environment for Rapid Prototyping of Laminate Robotic Mechanisms

TL;DR

This paper introduces an integrated software environment that automates the analysis and simulation of laminate robotic mechanisms, enabling rapid prototyping and validation before physical manufacturing.

Contribution

It presents a novel companion tool that automates dynamic equation generation and simulation for laminate robots, filling a gap in existing design software.

Findings

Validated simulation accuracy against physical prototypes

Automated dynamic analysis streamlines design process

Enables rapid iteration for low-cost robot development

Abstract

Laminate mechanisms are a reliable concept in producing lowcost robots for educational and commercial purposes. These mechanisms are produced using low-cost manufacturing techniques which have improved significantly during recent years and are more accessible to novices and hobbyists. However, iterating through the design space to come up with the best design for a robot is still a time consuming and rather expensive task and therefore, there is still a need for model-based analysis before manufacturing. Until now, there has been no integrated design and analysis software for laminate robots. This paper addresses some of the issues surrounding laminate analysis by introducing a companion to an existing laminate design tool that automates the generation of dynamic equations and produces simulation results via rendered plots and videos. We have validated the accuracy of the software by comparing the position, velocity and acceleration of the simulated mechanisms with the measurements taken from physical laminate prototypes using a motion capture system.