Industrial robot arms are an essential part of automated manufacturing, and perform tasks such as component assembly, welding, light machining, spray painting, etc. They are highly repeatable, can be calibrated to be sufficiently accurate and they eliminate human error. The serial robot architecture is by far the most ubiquitous in modern day manufacturing, as the technology is highly refined in its current state; the machine architecture provides great dexterity and it has a large useful workspace. This architecture however does have some problems, one of which is a large machine moving mass. The primary reason for this lies in the location of its motors and gearboxes. Due to the robot's significant inertia it utilizes a large amount of energy. This thesis focused on the mechanical design, mathematical modelling and simulation of 2 robotic arm designs which had a hybrid nature. They were classified as hybrid due to the fact that their architectures departed from both the classic definitions of serial kinematics manipulators/machines (SKMs) and parallel kinematics manipulators/machines (PKMs). The primary design goal was to merge some of the advantages of both architectures, i.e. a large workspace to footprint ratio and high end-effector dexterity which was found in serial robots, combined with the low inertia of a parallel robot for improved dynamics. Serial and parallel robots were complementary, and these design goals could not co-exist in a single purist robot architecture. The designs had a full complement of 6 DOFs (degrees of freedom), 3 DOFs for spatial position of the wrist and 3 DOFs for orientation of that wrist. They also had a lower machine moving mass, a fact that was thought to improve speed and energy usage. A major contribution of this research PhD project was a comparative energy usage study, which was performed against the serial robot as a measure. This was done for both hybrid designs as well as another model which represented 2 existing patented designs. The purpose of that was to determine if lowering the machine moving mass would improve energy efficiency, and to determine which design was best. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

The concept of mass producing custom products, though extremely beneficial to the commercial, and retail industries, does come with some limitations. One of these is the occurrence of bottlenecks in the materials handling systems associated with reconfigurable manufacturing systems tasked with achieving the goal of mass customisation manufacturing. This specific problem requires the development of an intervention system for rerouting parts and materials waiting in line, around bottlenecks and/or work flow disruptions, to alternative destinations. Mobile robots can be used for the resolution of bottlenecks, and similar disruptions in work flow, in these situations. Embedding autonomy into mobile robots in a manufacturing environment, releases the higher level production management systems from routing of parts and materials. The principle of the inverted pendulum has recently become popular in mobile robotics applications, and is being implemented in research projects around the world. The use of this principle produces a two-wheeled mobile robot that is able to actively stabilise itself while in operation. The dissertation is focused on the research, design, assembly, testing and validation of a two-wheeled autonomous materials handling robot for application in reconfigurable manufacturing systems. This robot should be dynamically or statically stable during different phases of operation. The mechatronic engineering approach of system integration has been used in this project in order to produce a more reliable robotic system. The application of the inverted pendulum principle requires that a suitable control strategy be formulated. It also necessetates the ues of sensors to track the state of the robot. Control engineering theory was used to develop an optimal control strategy that is robust enough to cope with varying payload characteristics. The Kalman filter is employed as state estimation measure to improve sensor data. For a mobile robot to be deemed autonomous, one of the requirements is that the robot should be able to navigate through its environment without colliding with obstacles in its path, and without human intervention. A navigation system has been designed, through field specific research, to enable this. The robot is also required to communicate with remote computers housing production management systems as well as with mobile robots that form part of the same materials handling system. Performance analysis and testing proves the feasibility of a mobile robot system. / Thesis (M.Sc.Eng.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010.

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Technology today has progressed to the point that the true potential of robotics is beginning to be realized. However, programming robots to be robust across varied environments and objectives, in a way that is accessible and intuitive to most users, is still a difficult task. There remain a number of unmet needs. For example, many existing solutions today are proprietary, which makes widespread adoption of a single solution difficult to achieve. Also, most approaches are highly targeted to a specific implementation. But it is not clear that these approaches will generalize to a wider range of problems and applications. To address these issues, we define the Interaction Space, or the space created by the interaction between robots and humans. This space is used to classify relevant existing work, and to conceptualize these unmet needs. GTax, a knowledge transfer framework, is presented as a solution that is able to span the Interaction Space. The framework is based on SysML, a standard used in many different systems, which provides a formalized representation and verification. Through this work, we demonstrate that by generalizing across the Interaction Space, we can simplify robot programming and enable knowledge transfer between processes, systems and application domains.

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Typescript (Photocopy) / Includes paper co-authored by the author as attachment / Bibliography: leaves 133-140 / vii, 140, [12] leaves : ill ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Applied Mathematics, 1988

Thesis (doctoral)--University of Oulu, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 207-218). Also available on the World Wide Web.

D.Ing. / A simulation system of an industrial robot, within a manufacturing environment for its intelligent interaction within the cell as well as its control via the Internet is presented. The simulation verification in an experimental cell in which an ABB lRB 2400 robot operates is discussed. Sensors employed throughout the cell to supply the input for robot action through an expert system are described. The robot interacts with several task groups of the cell, production equipment, materials handling and assembly. The cell use of a PC, directly linked to the robot and other equipment and sensors for, cell control is explained. The PC has full on-line control of all equipment while the simulation runs simultaneously with the experimental set-up. The system incorporates robot and cell control via the Internet. To add additional intelligence to the cell a transponder system, tagging each part in the robotic cell, is also implemented. This enables each part to be identified by the robot, as well as for the robot to interact with each transponder.

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The design of toolhead changing manipulator is highly dependent on the specific application. The geometry, mobility of the existing system, the toolhead robot interface and the toolhead size and shape all are major factors in the development of an effective solution. The addition of other functional requirements increase the complexity of the design. The platform maintenance functions required in the BWNS problem increased the complexity to a 5 DOF feeding manipulator. This solution, while complex, is an effective and efficient solution to this specific application. The result should be a significant reduction in human radiation exposure and reduced steam generator service time. / Master of Science