Dimensional Optimization of 4-DOF Robot Manipulator Using Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm

Abstract

Kinematic synthesis has become an essential issue in robot design, and as a result, much research in recent years has focused on the optimal dimensional synthesis of robot manipulators. However, for particular application area, such as robots in the agriculture field, the robot design is more challenging and need to consider the unstructured structure and working environment. For such an application, the robot manipulator with an open-source design has a high potential to be utilized and optimized. This paper uses an artificial bee colony algorithm (ABC) to optimize the structural dimensions of a four degrees-of-freedom robot manipulator. It was found that the robot manipulator with optimized dimensions effectively reaches the desired end-effector position. For example, for the target position of (1.5, 0.5, 2.0), the optimal link lengths generated an actual end-effector position of (1.4990, 0.4995, 2.000), with a mean position error of 0.62174 mm. This outcome shows that the optimal dimensions of the robot manipulator can be accurately obtained using the ABC algorithm.