Integrated Modular Solution for Task Oriented Manipulator Configuration Design

TL;DR

This paper presents an integrated approach for designing modular, reconfigurable robotic manipulators optimized for specific tasks in cluttered environments, enabling direct mapping from optimal configurations to modular architectures.

Contribution

It introduces a novel strategy to find minimal DOF configurations and directly map them to modular designs, streamlining the customization process.

Findings

Validated modular configurations using ROS for motion planning

Demonstrated effective adaptation of unconventional optimal configurations

Provided a systematic approach for modular manipulator design

Abstract

Modular and reconfigurable robotic systems have been designed to provide a customized solution for the non-repetitive tasks to be performed in a constrained environment. Customized solutions are normally extracted from task-based optimization of the possible manipulator configurations but the solution are not integrated, for providing the modular compositions directly. In this work, in the first phase, a strategy of finding unconventional optimal configurations with minimal number of degrees-of-freedom are discussed based upon the prescribed working locations and the cluttered environment. Then, in the second phase, design of the modular and reconfigurable architecture is presented which can adapt these unconventional robotic parameters. Rather than generating and evolving the modular compositions, a strategy is presented through which the unconventional optimal configurations can be mapped directly to the modular compositions. The generated modular composition is validated using Robot Operating System for the motion planning between the prescribed working locations in a given cluttered environment.