Design and development of a new 4 DOF hybrid robot with Scara motion for high-speed operations in large workspace

Abstract

This paper presents a novel four-degree-of-freedom (4-DOF) hybrid robot named Hybrid-Long-Scara robot, which has the advantages of large workspace and low inertia. First, the kinematic mechanism of the new robot is designed based on requirements of its DOFs and actuation joints. Second, the closed-form displacement and velocity models of the new robot are established. Third, the workspace of the Hybrid-Long-Scara robot is quantitatively analyzed and the advantages of the new robot are visually shown. At last, a physical prototype is developed to verify the effectiveness of the mechanical design and kinematic model of the Hybrid-Long-Scara robot. Comparing with a typical Scara robot, the new robot can obtain larger vertical workspace based on a compact structure. On the other hand, comparing with a typical palletizing robot, the new robot can obtain higher motion speed, has a more compact height dimension, and can applied to wider operation tasks. With those characteristics, the Hybrid-Long-Scara robot has a good application prospect in high-speed sorting, grabbing, unstacking and packing in large workspace.