Inverse engineering design and construction of an ABS plastic, six DOF robotic arm structure

Abstract

Robotic arms have been proposed since the 50's and they have evolved to play a key role in a number of applications, such as food, auto motion, and entertainment industry. Two of the paramount parameters in the design of arm robots are their weight and their strength efficiency. Our aim was to improve these two key parameters by using ABS plastic in the design and construction of a robotic arm structure with six degrees of freedom. ABS plastic is a highly stiff and hard material even at low temperatures, and it represents a low-cost solution compared to conventional materials such as aluminum and steel, hence it is widely used in many engineering applications. We studied the pieces of robotic arm CrustCrawler Pro-Series for supporting the mathematical and structural modeling for its redesigning, and inverse engineering and morphogenesis were used for studying and improving its structures. The resulting robotic arm was redesigned with focus on the mass reduction criteria in terms of as much substitution as possible by ABS plastic, and it was capable of holding a weight larger than its own, given that the suppressed weight can be used for improved fastening and holding. Other advantages can be obtained from the achieved mass reduction in other structure components, yielding improved efficiency.