DYNAMIC MODELLING OF MULTI SECTION BIONIC MANIPULATOR: APPLICATION TO ROBOTINO XT

Abstract

Bionic engineering started growing last decade, by finding the best correlation between biological and mechanical motions. With the biological inspired robots, the mechanism that is patterned after principles found in humans or nature is being reproduced It also refers to artificial devices implanted into humans replacing or extending normal human functions with certain accuracy. Robotino XT robot is a bionic robot which has been developed by three engineers at the Festo Company. The robot consists of a manipulator arm fixed onto mobile base known as Robotino. The latter is based on an Omni directional drive assembly, which enables the system to roam freely. The system, which currently only exists as a prototype, offers other advantages compared to traditional metal robots because it is made of plastic and works with compressed air. This system provides a non- hazardous environment between man and machine. The system can be used as an aid for the handicapped, as well as in agriculture, private homes and educational institutes. In industrial environments, it can be used as a handling system to support assembly processes.. The present work deals with developing the dynamic model of the biologically inspired multi section manipulator arm. This manipulator arm, which is inspired by the elephant trunk, is comprised of two bending sections, one rotating section and one compliant gripper. Each bending section is comprised of three bellows, which are actuated pneumatically and the position and the orientation are controlled by differentiating the pressures in these bellows. Since the basic structure of the arm is bellow. The way to model the bellow is found out. Once dynamic model of one bellow has been found out, it can be linked to other bellows by putting suitable initial and boundary conditions in order to obtain the dynamic model of the manipulator arm as a whole. Once dynamic model of this class of bionic manipulator has been synthesized, it can be used to design an adequate control for the whole BHA robot. iii