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Published in:
2023 | OriginalPaper | Chapter
Design and 3D Printing Fabrication of a Low-Cost Lightweight Robot Manipulator
Authors : Francisco Cruz, Mohammad Safeea, Mihail Babcinschi, Pedro Neto
Published in: Flexible Automation and Intelligent Manufacturing: The Human-Data-Technology Nexus
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
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Abstract
There is an increasing demand for low-cost and lightweight robot manipulators to operate in the most diverse domains. In the last few years, in parallel with additive manufacturing advancement, we witness the emergence of innovative robot designs fabricated using 3D printing. However, the development of a functional robot is still a complex process, requiring skills in multidisciplinary knowledge areas. This paper presents a novel low-cost serially linked lightweight robot manipulator. It features 6° of freedom (DOF) plus a 1 DOF gripper, an innovative structural design addressing topological optimization, and its structure is fabricated using a conventional 3D printing machine. Mechatronics hardware is based on standard off-the-shelf actuators and control boards. Experimental results demonstrated the robot’s efficiency, namely in what concerns to repeatability (0.4 mm). The robot presented a payload capacity of 0.4 kg, which is quite remarkable since the robot’s total mass is around 0.7 kg.