Automating industrial tasks through mechatronic systems – a review of robotics in industrial perspective

Abstract

Pressing requirements of improved and enhanced productivity in industrial applications has necessitated deployment of robot to automate tasks. Manipulator based articulated robots for today's industrial applications vary widely in terms of number of Degree Of Freedom (DOF), payload capacity, Range Of Motion (ROM), control implementation and mountable configurations. This paper presents a comprehensive and systematic review of industrial robots with a focus on their application areas. The study of manipulators for diversified applications has highlighted the need of sophisticated algorithms for their control and trajectory planning. Both of these key concepts are discussed in the paper. The control of industrial manipulator is important for accomplishing tasks requiring high precision, repeatability and reliability by mitigating the effects of disturbances. The trajectory planning is vital for time optimization, energy optimization and collision avoidance to ensure most appropriate trajectory for a given task in an environment. The application oriented review offers readers opportunities to generate ideas applicable to their operations and to conform feasibility of their ideas.