Design, Development and Motion Control of a New Multi-loop Manipulator

Nazim Mir-Nasiri
Mechatronics Department
International Islamic University Malaysia
Jalan Gombak , 53100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
nazim@iiu.edu.my

Abstract related to the design of manipulators with parallel

This paper is about a new robotic arm with parallel structures. For example, solution of direct kinematics
multi-loop structure with functionality or geometry problem is simpler, branching effect is less emphasized,
similar to serial structure SCARA robot. However it has and workspace is larger.
a number of advantages compared to SCARA robot and
to other conventional manipulators with parallel 2. Conceptual design
structures. It has high stiffness, low inertia and large Three dimensional view and schematic diagram of the
payload with comparison to SCARA robot and larger SCARA-type manipulator with parallel structure are
workspace with comparison to conventional shown in Figures 1 and 2, respectively. It has three
manipulators with parallel structures. This paper and planar chains holding the gripper mechanism.
related research is aimed to overcome the problems
encountered in the design, modeling and application of
such robotic arms. In fact, the proposed structure has
simpler and manageable mathematical models compared
to that of other 3D parallel structures.

Keywords: parallel manipulators, SCARA geometry,

kinematics, dynamics, interface

1. Introduction
Parallel manipulators can be found in many applications,
such as airplane simulators [1], adjustable articulated
trusses [2], mining machines [3], pointing devices [4],
and so on. Most of them are manipulators with 6-DOF
with extensible limps. All of them suffer the problems of
relatively small workspace and design difficulties.
Furthermore, their direct kinematics is a very difficult
problem. Nevertheless, consideration of the motion
involved in assembly may lead to the development of
simpler parallel arm geometry for use in assembly
applications. One of the known robotic arms geometry Fig. 1: 3D view of the manipulator
specifically designed for an assembly operation is the
SCARA-type geometry. It is suitable for the assembly Two kinematic chains with one degrees of freedom
operations when operations involve building up the (DOF) each are used to reach any point within a
assembly by placing parts from bottom up. Mechanism horizontal planar workspace and the third one (Figures 3
described below should replace the serial manipulators and 4) also with one DOF is used to provide a proper
with SCARA-type geometry. There are some angular orientation for the gripper using parallelogram
advantages of robotic arms with multi-loop structure as mechanism. This mechanism has two timing belts with
compared to that of open loop structure arms. They have three pulleys. Indeed, the two kinematic chains
faster motion of a gripper, more rigid structures, more controlling position of the gripper form a planar five-bar
loading capacity, less power consumption, placing of linkage mechanism with two stationery pins P and Q
driving motors on stationary base, much simpler (Figure 2).
transmission system. In addition, the manipulators with
SCARA-type geometry resolves partially some problems
 constant while the robot executes positioning of its end-
θ3
effector.
R
a3
Y

b3
ϕ

G
2
b

b1

ψ2 ψ1
a2 a1

θ2
P θ1
(0,0) Q X
Fig. 4: Gripper orientation mechanism –top view

Fig. 2: Top view of the manipulator
This mechanism provides two DOF with for the gripper
point G. This mechanical design enables to control the
position of the gripper independently from its
orientation. In other words, rotor motions of two
positioning motors at the stationary points P and Q of
this five-bar linkage mechanism are completely
independent of that of the motor responsible for the
orientation of the gripper. Thus, the positioning function
has been completely decoupled from the orientation
function in this robotic arm which is nit the case for the
planar 3RRR manipulator with serial structure [6].
S0
a3
b3
S3
Fig. 3: Gripper orientation mechanism – 3D view
Furthermore, the parallelogram mechanism used to
control the orientation of the gripper (Figures 3 and 4)
enables to maintain a desired orientation of the gripper
It means the orientation of the gripper is not affected by
the motions in two motors responsible for the positioning
of the gripper at all. To achieve this gripper is rigidly
attached to the first pulley but it is free to rotate at the
tool plate of the arm. The third pulley is rigidly attached
to the shaft of the third motor responsible purely for
orientation of the gripper but this shaft is free to rotate
with respect to the column supporting the third arm
chain. Third pulley is used to transmit the rotation from
the orientation motor to the gripper by means of two
timing belts. During the process of positioning the
gripper only two positioning motors are engaged in to the
motion whereas the rotor of the orientation motor
remains stationary. Therefore any ensuing rotation at the
third column joint will cause an opposing rotation of the
gripper pulley. Thus the orientation of the gripper does
not change during the positioning of the gripper unless
the orientation motor is energized. There is a linear
actuator (pneumatic cylinder) inserted in between the
gripper and the pulley. That allows the gripper to be
translated in vertical direction (the fourth DOF). In
assembly operation this degree of freedom allows
assembly parts to be raised from a tray and placed on the
top of the assembly block. For the symmetry all the
lengths of the links have been selected equal to each
other. All together this manipulator has only four degrees
of freedom that are quite sufficient for an assembly or
any other pick-and-place operations. These four DOF
can be controlled independently from each other: two
DOF for the positioning, one DOF for the orientation and
the last DOF for lifting and lowering the gripper. In
addition there is a gripper mounted at the end of the
pneumatic cylinder shaft. It has an additional one degree
of freedom mechanism for opening and closing its jaws.
An electrical motor rotates a central cam which is linked
to two sliding fingers moving on parallel guides in a
direction perpendicular to motor axis as shown in Error! pulleys and timing belts. The expressions for θ1 , θ 2 , θ 3
Reference source not found.
are derived using vector approach and they are as
link
Guides follows:

−(e12e13) ± (2e12e13 )2 −(e112 + e122 )(e132 −e112 )

cosθ1 =
(e112 + e122 )
−e cos θ1 − e13
pins
sin θ1 = 12
cam
e11
fingers

−(e22e23) ± (e22e23)2 −(e212 + e122 )(e232 −e212 )

Fig. 5: Robot gripper
The paper presents robotic arm kinematic and dynamic
modelling for positioning and motors torque calculations
as well as open loop control of robotic arm’s degrees of
freedom through user friendly graphical user interface.
Controlling of gripper position involves only two
positioning kinematic chains supporting the gripper.
Although the third orientation kinematic chain does not
participate in positioning the gripper however it does
support and share gripper’s load. While positioning the
gripper the third chain strictly followers the motion of
the gripper since it has sufficient number of DOF to do
so. The third chain, however, exerts some inertial load on
the gripper due to the accelerating links. Thus design of
this unique four DOF manipulator implements the idea
of load shearing between the actuators as well as enables
to reduce the weights of structural elements supporting
the load and in the meantime to increase its structural
rigidity and speed of the gripper’s motion.
3. Mathematical modeling
3.1 Inverse and forward kinematics
A schematic diagram of the manipulator indicating all
constant and variable parameters of the mechanism is
shown in Figure 2. The inverse kinematics analysis
produces a set of three column joint angles ( θ1 , θ 2 , θ 3 )
for each arm chain as a function of given Cartesian
positions G(x, y) of the moving end-effector. Among
these angles θ1 and θ 2 are used to control the desired
position of the gripper G(x, y) and θ3 is just a default
(free) angle of the third column supporting the third
chain. The orientation angle ϕ of the end-effector is
independent of θ3 and controlled by the third motor
mounted into the third column together with system of
cosθ2 =
(e212 + e222 )
−e cos θ 2 − e23
sin θ 2 = 22
e22
−(e32e33 ) ± (e32e33)2 − (e312 + e322 )(e332 −e312 )
cosθ3 =
(e312 + e322 )
−e32 cos θ 3 − e33
sin θ 3 = , where
e31
e11 = −2a1 y , e12 = −2a1 x , e13 = x 2 + y 2 + a12 − b12 ,
e21 = 2a2 ( yQ − y ) , e22 = 2a2 ( xQ − x ) ,
e23 = x2 + y2 + xQ2 + yQ2 + a22 − b22 − 2xxQ − 2 yyQ
e31 = 2 yR a3 − 2 ya3 , e32 = 2 xR a3 − 2 xa3 ,
e33 = x2 + y2 + xR2 + yR2 + a32 − b32 − 2xxR − 2 yyR
The coordinates of end-effector G ( x, y ) , coordinates of
two other columns Q(xQ, yQ), R(xR,yR), constant
parameters of the mechanism ai, bi are inputs to the
system of equations and the angles θ1 and θ 2 are
calculated parameters. Third chain angle θ3 is defined
by the current position of the gripper. The third chain
provides support for the gripper orientation mechanism.
The forward kinematics can be used to determine
workspace of the manipulator. For a given set of input
joint angles θ1 , θ 2 the corresponding set of end-effector
G(x, y) positions can be calculated. The expressions for
x, y are as follows:
 −k5 ± k52 − 4k6 k4
y1,2 = -1
The Jacobian (J ) matrix for the inverse kinematics
2k 4 provides a transformation from the velocity of the end-
k2 y1,2 + k1 effector in Cartesian space to the joint velocities in joint
x1,2 = , where space.
k3
k1 = u11 − u21 , k2 = u22 − u12 , θ1  −1  
x
   =  J    
k3 = u23 − u13 , u11 = −2a1 cosθ1 , θ 2   y

 b1x b2 x 
u12 = −2a1 sin θ1 , u13 = a12 − b12 , 
θ1   a1xb1y − a1 yb1x a2 xb2 y − a2 yb2 x   x 
= 
     y 
u21 = −2 xQ − 2a2 cos θ 2 , θ 2   b1 y b2 y

 a1xb1y − a1 yb1x a2 xb2 y − a2 yb2 x 
u22 = −2 yQ − 2a2 sin θ 2 ,
The analysis shows that the mechanism in singular
u23 = x + y +a −b +2a2xQ cosθ2 +2a2 yQ sinθ2
2 2 2 2 position only if two the links b1 and b2 are aligned.
Q Q 2 2
3.3 Dynamic analysis
Lagrange formulation [6, 7] with multipliers approach
u31 = −2 xR − 2a3 cosθ 3 , u32 = −2 yR − 2a3 sin θ 3 , has been implemented to derive dynamic equations for
the manipulator. This approach significantly simplifies
the process of derivation of the dynamics equations of
u33 = xR2 + yR2 + a32 −b32 + 2a3xR cosθ3 +2a3 yR sinθ3 motions for the mechanisms with many DOF.

d dL ∂L k
∂Γ
( )− = Q j + ∑ λi i ,
Two solutions of forward and inverse kinematics dt dq j ∂q j i =1 ∂q j
problems indicate to two possible configurations of
arm’s kinematics chains.
3.2 Jacobian and velocity analysis where for j = 1 to n: i is the constraint index, j is the
The Jacobian (J) matrix for the forward kinematics generalized coordinate index, k is the number of
provides a transformation from the joint velocities in constraint functions, n is the number of generalized
joint space to the end-effector velocity in Cartesian coordinates, L is the Lagrange function, where L = T - V
space. , T is the total kinetic energy of the manipulator, V is
 x  θ1  the total potential energy of the manipulator, q j is the j-
 y  = [ J ]  
  θ 2  th generalized coordinate, λi is the Lagrange multiplier,
Γi is a constraint equation, and Q j is a generalized
It has been defined for the manipulator as follows:
external force. In the system there is no change of
potential energy. Hence the value of V in the Lagrange
b2y (a1xb1y −a1yb1x ) b1y (a2yb2x −a2xb2y ) function can be omitted and L can be assumed to be
 b1xb2y −b1yb2x  θ1 
x  b1xb2y −b1yb2x equivalent to the kinetic energy of the system T. The
 =   where: kinetic energy of the system can be calculated using
y b2x (a1yb1x −a1xb1y ) b1x (a2xb2y −a2yb2x ) θ2  following equations:
 
 b1xb2y −b1yb2x b1xb2y −b1yb2x  1 3 1 1
[ I i ( rotor ) + ai2 ( mai + mbi )]θDi2
T= ∑
2 i =1 3 2
a1x = a1 cos θ1 , a1 y = a1 sin θ1 , b1x = b1 cos θ1 , 1 1
+ (ml + (mb1 + mb 2 + mb 3 ))( xD 2 + yD 2 )
b1 y = b1 sin θ1 , a2 x = a2 cos θ 2 , a2 y = a2 sin θ 2 , 2 b 2 cos2θ 2
b2x = and b 2 y = b
b 2 x = b 2 cos θ 2 , b 2 y = b 2 sin θ 2 .
where: mai, mb, are the masses of links a, b in each 4. Manipulator Motion Control
chain respectively, ml is a load mass, I(rotor) is the Manipulator motions control is implemented by using
moment of inertia for the driving shaft in each chain. For National Instruments hardware and LabVIEW software.
simplicity the mass of every link b is divided by half and A special computer graphical interface has been
distributed between the joins at the ends of respective developed to make manipulator gripper to follow in real
links. time the cursor movement on the screen space. This
For this manipulator the generalized coordinates are graphical interface software simulates the manipulator
links motions on the screen of computer. Thus the
chosen to be x, y , θ1, , θ 2 . Therefore, dynamics of the gripper motion in the real space can be controlled by
manipulator is represented as a system of four equations moving dynamically the gripper in the simulated space
with four unknowns, two for multipliers ( λi for i = 1 to of the computer monitor. The basic operational block-
diagram of the robot is shown in Figure 6.
2), and another two for actuator torques ( τ j for j=1

and 2). In all equations the generalized forces Q j (fx,fy)
(for j = 1 to 2) are zero since there is no external forces
applied to the gripper. This formulation requires only
two constraint equations ( Γi for i = 1 to 2) in terms of
the generalized coordinates. Close loop equations for the
first and second chains are constraint equations for this
formulation (Figure 3). They are as follows:

( Γ1 ) :
x2 + y2 − 2xa1 cosθ1 − 2 ya1 sinθ1 + a12 − b12 = 0
( Γ2 ) :
x 2 + y 2 − 2xx Q − 2 yy Q − 2xa2 cos θ 2
−2 ya2 sin θ 2 + 2x Q a2 cos θ 2
+2 y Q a2 sin θ 2 + x Q2 + y Q2 + a22 − b22 = 0

The solution for the Lagrange multipliers can be found

from the following matrix equation:

−1
 ∂Γ1 ∂Γ2   d dL   ∂L  
λ1   ∂x1 ∂x1  dt (dx )  ∂x  f 
λ  =  ∂Γ   x
 −   −  
 2 1 ∂Γ2   d (dL )  ∂L  f y 
 ∂y ∂y 2  dt dy   ∂y   Fig. 6: Operational block diagram
 2  
Stepper motors have been used to drive the gripper.
Using this software an operator first manually executes
Finally, the torques that are required to drive the input
any motion of the gripper on the screen and then
shafts can be calculated from the following matrix
monitors corresponding actual motion of the gripper.
equations:
Spatial coordinates of the gripper (input from the
operator) are read directly from the screen and converted
 d dL   ∂L   ∂Γ1 ∂Γ2  to the joints coordinates (angles) by solving inverse
( )
τ1   dt dθ1   ∂θ1   ∂θ1 ∂θ1  λ1  kinematics problem and then program converts them into
τ  =  d dL  −  ∂L  −  ∂Γ ∂Γ  λ  the motor coordinates (steps). The motor coordinates
then are sent to the National Instruments motion
 2 2  2
dt (dθ ) ∂θ  ∂θ ∂θ 
1
controller PCI-7344. This combined stepper/servo motor
 2   2  2 2 controller provides fully programmable motion control
for up to four independent or coordinated axes of motion,
with dedicated motion I/O for limit and home switches
and additional I/O for general-purpose functions. This
controller, in turn, sends appropriate digital signals to
respective motor driver MID - 7064 in order to actuate
the motors. The MID power drives connect to motion
controller board through a single-shielded cable that
transfers all motor commands, as well as motion I/O
control and feedback signals. The equipment setup is
shown in Figure 7.The software also allows selection of
appropriate velocity profiles for the motors. This type of
manipulator motion control via computer graphical
interface is successfully used for teaching mode of the
robot and may replace conventional teaching pendants of
the robots.
Fig. 7 Motion Control Equipment
5. Conclusions
The paper describes a new type of manipulator with
parallel structure for the use in an assembly operation or
in any other operations that can be performed by using
the SCARA-type geometry robots. It is simpler than
other types of parallel manipulators in terms of structure
and control. Meantime, it avoids all other problems
related to the serial manipulators, e.g. singularities,
degeneracy, rigidity of the structure and so on.
Therefore, this structure fully utilizes advantages of both
manipulators, serial and parallel. The paper presents
conceptual design as well as provides solutions for two
problems, kinematics and dynamics. These solutions are
used in robot control system to guide the manipulator.
Motion control of the manipulator is implemented by
newly developed user friendly computer graphical
interface which allows the operator to control motion of
the gripper in interactive mode.
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