Figure illustrates the configuration of a manipulator in three dimensions. The manipulator has 4 degrees of freedom: joint 1 (type T joint) allows rotation about the z axis; joint 2 (type R) allows rotation about an axis that is perpendicular to the z axis; joint 3 is a linear joint which is capable of sliding
A 4-Degree of Freedom Manipulator in Three Dimensions Read More »
A robot moves in space to perform tasks and hence it needs actuators to move the links and sensors to know where each joint is. Sensors inform the controller by how much each joint has moved and thus enables the controller to enforce a particular velocity or position during motion. As we have seen in
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Commercially available industrial robots can be classified into four categories according to their control system. The types of robot controls : Limited sequence robots Playback robots with point to point control Playback robots with continuous path control Intelligent robots Of the four categories, the limited sequence robots represent the lowest level of control and intelligent
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A capacitor is broadly defined as two conductors that can hold opposite charges. It can be used as either a sensor or an actuator. If the distance and relative position between two conductors change as a result of applied stimulus, the capacitance value would be changed. This forms the basis of capacitive (or electrostatic) sensing.
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Mechanical characteristics such as spring constants and resonant frequencies of beams and membranes can be changed by introducing strain. In this section, we focus on discussing methods for tuning characteristics of cantilever beams to exemplify the methodology. For cantilevers, longitudinal strain can be introduced by axial or transverse loading forces. We will discuss these two
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A MEMS system, including sensors and actuators, invariably consists of mass and supporting structures. The supporting mechanical elements (membranes, cantilever, or suspensions) provide elastic restoring spring constants. Movement of the mass is impeded by collision with air molecules surrounding the mass. This constitutes damping, which is a velocity-dependant resistance force. As such, a MEMS system
Dynamic System, Resonant Frequency, and Quality Factor Read More »
Silicon, an element commonly found on sandy beaches and in window glasses, is the substrate of choice for building integrated circuits. Silicon belongs to a class of materials called semiconductors. which offers remarkable electrical characteristics and controllability for electronics circuits. Semiconductor silicon is the most common material in the MEMS field. Naturally, the electrical and
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These functions handles the data in binary from. This means that the values are stored in the desk file in the same format in which they are stored in the internal memory. The binary format is more accurate for storing numbers as they are stored in the exact internal representation. There are no conversions while
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For instance, one of the following things may happen when dealing with the files A file which we are attempting to open to reading does not exist. The file name used or a new file may already exist. We may attempt an invalid operation such as reading past the end of file. There may not
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We can develop a general configuration for a robot controller. The elements needed in the controller include: joint servo controllers, joint power amplifiers, mathematical processor, executive processor, program memory, and input device. The number of joint servo controllers and joint power amplifiers would correspond to the number of joints in the manipulator. These elements might
Configuration of a Robot Controller Read More »