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Modeling and simulation of biologically inspired 3D-printed fluid power robotic system architectures : a report submitted to the faculty of the Milwaukee School of Engineering in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering / by Jonathon E. Slightam.

by Slightam, Jonathon E., author., Milwaukee School of Engineering

Three-dimensional printing.

Robots, Industrial

Mobile robots -- Control.

133 leaves : illustrations, some of which are in color ; 29 cm.

Introduction -- Background -- Modeling and simulation -- Mechanical system design -- Simulation results -- Conclusions -- Appendix A: MATLAB code for 6DOF three-body serial chain robot simulation.

Industrial and mobile robotic system markets are projected to expand rapidly so that the industry will reach an estimated 67$ billion by 2025, and as a consequence, energy consumption robotic systems will be a growing concern from environmental and economic standpoints. Using topology optimization to design and 3D-print integrated fluid-power robot architectures is hypothesized to cut down on power requirements in serial chain robots in a range of 30%-50%. Literature suggests weight in structural system designs can be reduced by as much as 80% using topology optimization, and as a result, similar cuts can be realized in power requirements. This project sets to prove that the use of design and manufacturing tools to create power dense, fluid-powered manipulators and mobile systems can in fact contribute to significant savings in energy consumption, and as a result, allow cheaper operational costs of industrial robots, increased performance, or longer mission times of mobile robots. A rigid-body dynamic model was developed for a 6 degree-of-freedom serial chain robot to conduct simulations and to compare energy consumptions of robot link mass parameters given the design method. Link properties for three different system architectures were simulated, including a conventional system, a hybrid system with optimized structure, and a fully 3D-printed system architecture with flexible fluidic actuators. It was found that a 42% reduction in energy consumption is achieved using a 3D-printed fluid power robot architecture with flexible fluidic actuators, while a hybrid fluid-powered 3D-printing robot architecture that uses off-the-shelf components achieves a 24% reduction. Simulations show that topology optimization significantly reduces mass and inertia, and relocates the center of mass to save energy in serial chain robots. Simulations illustrate that designing and fabricating fluid power robots in a simultaneous fashion such that actuators, fittings, fluid passages, mechanisms, and structural components are made as a monolithic entity can significantly reduce energy consumption during operation. Furthermore, simulations show that new robot architectures based on 3D-printing design and manufacturing potentially have a significant economic and environmental impact on both the fluid power and robotics industry.

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