Optimal Synthesis of Unconventional Links for Modular Reconfigurable Manipulators

Customization of manipulators having unconventional parameters and link shapes have gained attention to accomplish nonrepetitive tasks in a given cluttered environment. Adaptive modular and reconfigurable designs are being used to achieve customization and have provided time and cost-effective solutions. Major challenges are associated to provide the systematic approach on the design and realization of modular components considering connectivity and integration. This article focuses on the architectural synthesis of the modular links, optimized with respect to the dynamic torques while following a prescribed set of trajectories. The design methodology is proposed as an Architecture Prominent Sectioning−k strategy, which assumes a modular link as an equivalent system of k number of point masses, performing optimization to minimize the joint torques and map the resulting re-adjusted point masses into a possible architecture. The proposed strategy is general and can be applied to planar or spatial manipulators with n−DoF even with nonparallel and nonperpendicular jointed configurations. The design of optimal curved links is realized resulting from the optimized solution considering the dynamics of the modular configurations over primitive trajectories. The proposed modular library of unconventional curved link modules with joint modules have shown lesser requirement of the joint torques compared to the conventional straight links.