Abstract
The objective of this study is to evaluate the compliance characteristics of a vertical multi articulated manipulator PA-10. The compliance characteristics of the PA-10, which is the flexible robot rather than other vertical robots, are derived from non-geometric errors such as flexibility of motors, strain wave gearings (harmonic drive transmissions) and joint links. The compliance model, which is comprised a simple kinematic modeling and the identified joint compliance, can estimate the tip deformation by applying the load in various postures. In this research, the compliance model is developed by considering the variation of compliance characteristics derived from the influence of the non-geometric errors and measurement errors. To confirm the usefulness of the compliance model, the verification experiments in which the tip compliance is measured are conducted under the various conditions and compared with the tip compliance ellipses which are computed from the compliance model. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis is carried out to reveal the influence of variety of the joint compliance for the compliance model. The experiments and the analysis results show that the compliance model can provide an estimated range which is within the experimental values and reveal the variation of compliance characteristics. In addition, usefulness of the compliance model is revealed by analyzing the variation of the compliance characteristics.
