Development of a new buffing robot manipulator for shoes.

SUMMARYThis paper presents analysis and experimental verifications of a new robot manipulator with five degrees of freedom developed for the buffing operation of shoes. First, the forward and inverse kinematics are analyzed. Next, an analytic closed-form solution is rigorously derived for the joint angles corresponding to the position and orientation of the end-effector in Cartesian coordinates. A control system, including input/output interfaces and the related electronic system, is designed for the control of the mechanical structure of the buffing robot. Then, peripheral systems integrated with the conveyer, transfer device, and fixture device are designed for the sequential buffing process of shoes. Also, a graphic user interface (GUI) program including the forward/inverse kinematics, control algorithm, and communication program to interact the robot with the peripheral systems is developed by using visual C++ language. A new flexible toolholder (FTH) is proposed to compensate for the excessive applied force between deburring tools and shoes. Finally, the test results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]