立体仓库--文翻译.docVIP

Industrial Robots A robot is an automatically controlled, reprogrammable, multipurpose, manipulating machine with several reprogrammable axes, [1]which may be either fixed in place or mobile for use in industrial automation applications. The key words are reprogrammable and multipurpose because most single-purpose machines do not meet these two requirements. The term “reprogrammable” implies two things: The robot operates according to a written program, and this program can be rewritten to accommodate a variety of manufacturing tasks. The term “multipurpose” means that the robot can perform many different functions, depending on the program and tooling currently in use. Over the past two decades, the robot has been introduced into industry to perform many monotonous and often unsafe operations. Because robots can perform certain basic tasks more quickly and accurately than humans, they are being increasingly used in various manufacturing industries. Structures of Robots The typical structure of industrial robots consists of 4 major components: the manipulator, the end effector, the power supply and the control system, as shown in Fig.17.1. Fig.17.1 Structures of Robots The manipulator is a mechanical unit that provides motions similar to those of a human arm. It often has a shoulder joint, an elbow and a wrist. It can rotate or slide, stretch out and withdraw in every possible direction with certain flexibility. The basic mechanical configurations of the robot manipulator are categorized as cartesian, cylindrical, spherical and articulated. A robot with a cartesian geometry can move its gripper to any position within the cube or rectangle defined as its working volume. Cylindrical coordinate robots can move the gripper within a volume that is described by a cylinder. The cylindrical coordinate robot is positioned in the work area by two linear movements in the X and Y directions and one angular rotation about the Z axis. Spherical arm geometry robot