Impact ellipsoids and measures for robot manipulators

Abstract

This paper introduces new methods to evaluate the effects of impact and contact forces on robot manipulators. New measures of the vulnerability of any arm to impacts in varying directions are given. Impact ellipsoids corresponding to these measures are defined and analyzed. Examples showing 'good' and 'bad' configurations for contacts and tasks of different types are presented.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>