Design and control of a reconfigurable industrial hydraulic robot

Abstract

Since the advent of robotics, manipulators have, in practice, been confined to specific application areas. This limitation can be attributed to their geometrical and physical characteristics such as having fixed link lengths, fixed angular ranges, relatively large size and mass, and their torque capabilities. This paper describes the design of a heavy-duty hydraulic manipulator, the Guelph Arm, which is uniquely flexible in its applications, The features of this robot include compactness, reconfigurability, variable link lengths, large torque and low, overall mass. The Guelph Arm is modeled and, the design and implementation of an industrial controller is given. The use of this robot in neurophysiological experiments is reported.