Robot Controls

Robot Controls

Robot Controls - The control hardware of servo controlled industrial robots is similar to those of CNC machine tools. Each axis is separately driven, and the required path motion is co ordinated by the computer. The computer, algorithms, however, are more comprehensive in robotics since they include simultaneous control of six axis of motion, rather than two or three linear axis, as in machine tools.

Similar to machine tools, two basic types of robots are available:

(i) Point to point (e.g. spot welding), and

(ii) Contouring or continuous path (e.g. spray painting or are welding robots).

Unlike those of machine tools, the controllers of many continuous path robots do not contain interpolators. The non cartesion co ordinate system associated with most robots and the presence of three rotary axis, at the wrist make implementation of simple interpolation techniques difficult in robotics.

Instead, many continuous path robots use memory devices to store many spatial positions that describe the required path, and these positions are played back during the operation.