The Triple Scissor Extender Robot Arm : solving the last one foot problem in robotic manipulation

Final assembly, inspection, and maintenance of aircrafts, automobiles, and industrial equipment often requires a robot to reach confined areas that are difficult to access. While a robot can move freely in open space, the last one foot to a target site in a manufacturing environment is often cluttered with complex obstacles. Here we present a novel solution to the last one foot problem. Inspired by plant stem growth, a new design concept for an expandable arm, the Triple Scissor Extender Robot Arm (TSERA), is developed to access a confined area through a narrow channel. The robot consists of a series of expandable segments each of which is able to extend and tilt. Thus, the robot can elongate its structure along a narrow, winding space. The new design concept is accompanied by a new algorithm for path planning, the Sequential Expansion Algorithm. Unlike traditional algorithms for articulated robot path planning, TSERA's Sequential Expansion Algorithm reduces the otherwise computationally expensive multi body path planning problem to a single rigid body kinematics problem. Exploiting the serial nature of expandable structure, we can compute arm motion by sequentially solving a simple inverse kinematics problem for each segment.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Shikari, Abbas (Abbas M.)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Harry Asada.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/118701

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/118701