Dynamic Characterization of KUKA Light-Weight Robot Manipulators

Abstract

High precision tasks are an important part of the manufacturing industry. For example, safety constraints require that some manufacturing must be done to a very high degree of accuracy. Robotics and automation are well suited for such tasks, as there is high repeatability on specialized repetitive tasks. Robotics has a long history in manufacturing in the form of industrial automation. Yet these robotic systems tend to be very large, restricting their use to tasks in open spaces that are easily accessible to the robot. In the last few years there have been a number of advances in the area of small, lightweight robots. One such robot is the KUKA Light-Weight Robot (LBR) [1]. With the availability of smaller robot manipulators, the question arises of whether it would be feasible to use them in tasks that would otherwise be unsuitable for the standard large industrial robots. Possible tasks would be those in tight or constrained spaces, such as in sub-structure drilling. For this to be possible, the light weight robot would need to be stiff enough to be able to meet safety constraints. To that end, this study is to determine whether the dynamic characteristics, specifically stiffness, of small light weight robots would make it possible for them to be used in manufacturing. Two light weight robots are considered in this study, the LBR and the KUKA KR5 sixx.