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Intelligent, self-contained robotic hand — Barrett Technology, Inc. (US7168748B2)

Barrett Technology, Inc. · Google Patents

Google Patents · Patents · License: Open Access

patent, google patents, intellectual property, US7168748B2, Barrett Technology, Inc., William T. Townsend, en, 2007

ABSTRACT

Abstract

A robotic device has a base and at least one finger having at least two links that are connected in series on rotary joints with at least two degrees of freedom. A brushless motor and an associated controller are located at each joint to produce a rotational movement of a link. Wires for electrical power and communication serially connect the controllers in a distributed control network. A network operating controller coordinates the operation of the network, including power distribution. At least one, but more typically two to five, wires interconnect all the controllers through one or more joints. Motor sensors and external world sensors monitor operating parameters of the robotic hand. The electrical signal output of the sensors can be input anywhere on the distributed control network. V-grooves on the robotic hand locate objects precisely and assist in gripping. The hand is sealed, immersible and has electrical connections through the rotary joints for anodizing in a single dunk without masking. In various forms, this intelligent, self-contained, dexterous hand, or combinations of such hands, can perform a wide variety of object gripping and manipulating tasks, as well as locomotion and combinations of locomotion and gripping.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLCATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application No. 60/414,044 filed on Sep. 26, 2002.

GOVERNMENT LICENSE RIGHTS

The U.S. Government has a paid-up license in this invention and the right in limited circumstances to require the patent owner to license others on reasonable terms as provided for by the terms of Contract No. DE-RA 26-01 NT 4103 awarded by the Department of Energy.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to robotics, and more specifically to a practical, self-contained robotic device that in one form closely simulates a human hand in dexterity, as well as an anodizing process used in making the robotic device.

Robots hold the promise of relieving workers from dirty and dangerous tasks; improving the quality of products; improving the efficacy of surgical procedures; and liberating the aged and infirmed with the dignity of self-sufficiency. And, in a world economy increasingly dependent on productivity, robotics holds the promise of a critically relevant technology.

Robotics, however, at present does not contribute significantly to the economy and society. For example, within the present US approximately $10 trillion economy, the robotics market is only about $1.2 billion (annual installations measured at the peak of the recent economic boom). That is only 1/100 th of one percent. By comparison, the scented-candle market in the U.S. is presently about $3 billion.

As a symptom of their failure, robots tend to execute only repetitive tasks, such as: go to point A, close gripper, go to point B, release gripper, repeat, repeat, repeat. Industrial robots spend their entire lives repeating steps like these, making them expensive alternatives for the equally effective dedicated machinery that they replace.

Herein, the broadest meaning of ârobotic armâ is used to include any mechanical means of transporting a robotic tool or robotic hand to perform one or a number of tasks. The term applies whether the mechanical means is made of any combination of serial and parallel link(s), whether it includes any combination of rotating and sliding joint(s), or whether combining motion along tracks. The term also includes transport by robotic vehicles, whether tracked, wheeled, legged, water-borne, air-borne, space-borne whether or not combined with the above forms. From a controls standpoint, the transporting means can be autonomous (guided by machine intelligence), teleoperated (guided by human intelligence), or any combination of autonomous and teleoperated control.

Herein, the broadest meaning of ârobotic handâ is used to mean any practical tool that performs mechanical functions, such as gripping, grasping and/or manipulating objects in its environment.

The purpose of robotic systems is to do useful tasks. In a robotic system, it is the tool and not the robotic arm that interacts directly with the task. The tool faces complexities and variations that are unique to every task object. Distinguishing between the robotic arm and the tool it carries is not arbitrary. Rather, market forces drive this split. The dividing plane between the robotic arm and the tool is sharply demarked by the outside face of the last component on the robot armâthe tool plateâa circular plate capping the last link with screw threads and alignment features for securely fastening the tool.

On the robot side of this face is the robotic arm and its supporting electronics and controllers. These robotic arms are mass-produced by one of a dozen or so multinational robotic-arm manufacturers that compete on slim margins with economies of scale. These companies have avoided âone-offâ customization by nurturing a cottage industry of local systems integrators who customize robot trajectories in software and customize the tools in metal.

Robotic hands can be classified into three levels of sophistication.

The least sophisticated robotic hand has pincer fingers or âjawsâ, typically two or three in number, that close and open to clamp and release objects of similar geometry based on external actuation, such as pneumatic pressure. This type of hand is used commonly in commercial and industrial robotics. Often the finger surfaces are custom shaped for a particular object in a fixed orientation. âSoft jawsâ are often used to effect this customizing. They are pieces of a readily machinable metal (aluminum or steel) or other structural material, replaceably secured to pincers or articulated fingers to effect this tailoring. Then, to handle more than one shape, or to handle one shape in a variety of orientations, the operator commonly uses a tool changer to switch from one hand to another hand with different customized finger shapes.

Hands that can grasp are the next more sophisticated. They typically have articulated âfingersâ that can wrap around an object, not merely clamp it.

The next most sophisticated robotic hand can not only grip and grasp, but has a dexterity, through multiple degrees of freedom, and multiple articulated links, that can also manipulate objects that are gripped or grasped. The most sophisticated robotic hand has motors and sensors synthesized by machine intelligence with electronic communications to other devices. The mechanical actions can arbitrarily grasp and/or manipulate a variety of objects of different shapes, sizes, and other varying combinations of physical properties.

The term âpracticalâ provides a very important distinction between hands that can function in a laboratory setting, or in some highly specialized environment, ones that will be termed herein âacademicâ, and hands that are sufficiently compact, robust (rugged and durable), modular, lightweight, and cost effective to be useful commercially and in industrial applications. For example a practical hand should be light enough to be attached to commercially available robotic arms without reducing the resulting effective payload rating to zero. In conventional industrial robotics, a controller box is located on the floor near, or built into, the base of the robot arm. The robotic arm ends in a tool plate. Robotic arms typically weigh 50â100 times their rated payloads, so that a 10 kg payload requires a robotic arm weighing nearly a metric ton. A practical hand should also be modularly attachable to the robotic tool-plate.

âPracticalâ also means that the hand is suitably designed to survive the demands and environmental conditions of its intended task. The restriction on practicality excludes all but the simplest previous robotic hands that, while otherwise sophisticated or dexterous, were never intended for practical use on a commercial robotic arm. These several dozen non-practical robotic hands have been used in the academic study of the science of the force interactions of fingers against objects, mathematical analysis of grasp stability, and as engineering projects in graduate schools. Robot Evolution, The Development of Anthrorobotics , by Mark E. Rosheim (1994) gives an overview of such âacademicâ hands at pp. 195â225. Another dexterous hand, one developed at the University of Pennsylvania, is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,957,320 and 5,501,498, both to Ulrich. To the best of applicants' knowledge, none of these hands is used commercially or industrially.

Compactness is another practical consideration, particularly as it relates to control. Articulated joints require the physical routings of wires for power and communication from a control box to the point(s) of articulation.

Typically, fat bundles of wire extend from the control box to the robot arm and an attached hand. For a practical hand, this means that bundles of wire are accommodated and routed through joints, and be subjected to millions of cycles of flexure. Design problems are increased, and durability (ârobustnessâ) is seriously adversely affected. Also, a prototype dexterous hand is rendered impractical when its electronics and drive components are too bulky, requiring an increase in the height of the hand. The distance from the wrist center to the payload center, which is directly dependent on the hand height, degrades overall system performance in two ways. First, it reduces available torque at the robot joints, especially for the wrist, for any given payload. If the distance is doubled the allowable payload is halved. If the distance is zero, the effect on wrist torque is zero. Second, it limits the size of the dexterous workspace, so that simple wrist rotations increasingly require increasingly exaggerated motions of the biggest, heaviest arm links. The greater this motion, the more joint-drive-power required, the more effort required to avoid collisions, and the lower the margin of safety. In the ideal case of zero distance, pure rotations cause zero motion of the larger links.

Expanding on the limitations of the robot wiring, robot structures have to be long and slender in order not to interfere with their tasks or themselves. The slenderness is limited by the complex joints which must both support loads with bearing sets and impart torques with mechanical drives. As a rule, robot manufacturers do not ship robots with externally mounted wires. Electrical wires can be routed on the outside of a robot by users, but with huge cost, because the robot ends up wrapping and unwrapping the wires around the structure as the joints rotate. The motion can require several meters of active service loop; and even then, a small snag or even capstan effect can instantly sever them. The only safe option is to route the wires internally, but the wires need to allow flexure along each sequential joint axis. Furthermore, to reduce fatigue, expensive cable (ârobot cableâ) is installed with generous (volume-expensive coils) at each joint axis. The need to reserve free space at each joint axis for coils of wire, impacts the cost of the joint mechanisms severely, arguably creating the greatest single cost and performance impact on any robot, whether arm or hand.

âPracticalâ also involves interrelated considerations regarding industry-standard tool-plate location versus hand bulk versus wires. All major commercial robotic arms end in a tool plate that is located just after the wrist axes. The wrist and forearm of commercial arms are integral in terms of mechanical, electrical, software, control, and safety, and cannot be removed. They also cannot accommodate more than a couple air hoses or wires. The academic dexterous robotic hands include a large volume of motors and transmissions, typically directly behind the hand. Most researchers use these hands as tools to study machine manipulation without ever intending to mount their hand on the end of a robotic arm. While some researchers claim that their hands can be commercially viable, the usual suggestions are not in fact practical. One suggestion is of removing the arm's forearm and wrist and replacing them with an integrated forearm+wrist+hand assembly of the researcher's design. However, the industry firmly rejects removing the forearm and wrist. Another suggestion is to mount the volume of motors and amplifiers at the base of the arm and to run wires all the way through the robot's joints. But each brushless motor in hand requires at least 3 heavy-gage power phase leads, a heavy-gage safety ground, and 4â7 position-feedback leads for commutation. Any other sensors (force, temperature, vision, tactile, etc.) require additional wires to be threaded down the entire robotic arm. Typically these hands require 50â150 support wires. Additional dexterity requires additional motors and therefore proportionally more wires. Clearly, there is a need for hand dexterity that is independent from the number of wires.

Because of these requirements of a practical hand, the single most common tool is a gripper with 2 or 3 jaws, which is sold with the aforementioned âsoftjawsâ made of aluminum or machinable steel. With varying degrees of success, the integrator applies experience and intuition in a time-consuming, iterative process to design the jaw shapes that will secure target objects reliably. For every unique variation in object size, shape, or orientation, a new tool is prepared and a tool exchanger employed to switch between this and other tools. Since the robotic-arm manufacturers and the tool integrators presently are independent business entities, the tool is designed as a self-contained module ready to be fastened to a tool plate or tool-exchange adaptor. Since the tool is located at the far end of the robot from its base, any tether for pneumatic, hydraulic, or electric control should be thin enough to fit (with other tethers) through restricted channels along the robot structure; flexible enough to face millions of flex cycles around multiple axes without fatigue failure; and robust.

The tether restriction limits the amount of sensor or control bandwidth that can be supported between the arm base and the tool.

The tool is attached at the end of a robotic mechanism capable of transporting the base of the tool with precision. (Whole-Arm Manipulation as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,207,114 is the only case known to applicants in which other parts of the arm interact physically to achieve tasks.) Also, lasers, water-jet cutters, dispensers, and arc-welders do not make hard physical contact with the task, but they are nearest to the task and their trajectory controls the quality of the task. While the robotic transport mechanism is far bigger and more expensive than the tool, its only role is transportation of the tool. Otherwise the arm's own bulk obstructs valuable workspace, blocks access to the work piece, and introduces the dominant safety hazard. Tools, such as robotic hands, are part of a much larger system, such as a workcell (see FIG. 1 ), which exists mainly to impart intelligent motion at the base of the tool. Typical system components include:

an articulated robotic arm, with joints driven by electric motors a set of motor-power amplifiers, normally mounted near the base of the robotic arm a motion-control processor which coordinates the arm motor velocities a processor to which the sensors report and which coordinates system activities the object work piece on which the system operates to perform a task various electronic sensors, measuring contact, vision, proximity, temperature, etc

Typically one of the dozen or so multinational robot manufacturers provides the components that are readily mass-produced, including the arm(s), amplifiers, and motion-control processor(s). Then an integrator works with the end-user to specify sensors, customize the end-of-arm tool(s) for a specific task, and program the system. When multiple tasks are requested of a robotic system or there is significant variability in the task, then separate individual tools are customized and exchanged with a tool-changer for each part of the task. Individual tools are kept therefore on racks within reach of the arm. Since the tool customization process usually involves time-consuming machining, duplicate spares for each unique tool are kept in local inventory to minimize production down durations in case of a tool failure. In general, the more complex the task(s), the greater the reliance on both tool variety and sensor input.

It is easy to overlook the importance of the tool, given that it traditionally makes up roughly only 1% of system cost and 0.1% of system weight and has a level of sophistication amounting to one bit of controlâfull-open versus full-closed in the case of grippers.

A practical dexterous robotic hand would have many obvious and many subtle advantages over less-dexterous grippers. Mean-time-between-failures (MBTF) is a good example of a subtle, even counter-intuitive advantage. At first glance one might assume that MTBF of simple, low-part-count grippers would easily beat complex, dexterous hands. But grippers have no control or sensing, so their action runs full speed into mechanical stops on every cycle, concentrating failure there.

By contrast, if a hand is dexterous and intelligent through sensors and controllers, MTBF is not nearly as important as the standard deviation of MBTF. That is, it is far more important

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLCATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application No. 60/414,044 filed on Sep. 26, 2002.

GOVERNMENT LICENSE RIGHTS

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Herein, the broadest meaning of ârobotic handâ is used to mean any practical tool that performs mechanical functions, such as gripping, grasping and/or manipulating objects in its environment.

Robotic hands can be classified into three levels of sophistication.

Hands that can grasp are the next more sophisticated. They typically have articulated âfingersâ that can wrap around an object, not merely clamp it.

The tether restriction limits the amount of sensor or control bandwidth that can be supported between the arm base and the tool.

By contrast, if a hand is dexterous and intelligent through sensors and controllers, MTBF is not nearly as important as the standard deviation of MBTF. That is, it is far more important to know precisely when a particular unit needs servicing than to make the average time very long.

Another disadvantage for dexterous hands generallyâas compared to grippers with pre-shaped gripper-jaw geometriesâthat goes counter to conventional wisdom is that dexterity does not provide position information to the same level as gripper jaws with limited motion and geometric locating features formed on the jaws of the grippers. A gripper (with shaped jaws) is programmed to pick up the same part at the same pick-up location over and over. As long as the part position error just before gripping is within the chamber size of the gripper jaw's geometric feature(s), then the part will adjust its location to fall precisely into that feature. The net result is that the act of gripping the part reduces its position error. This does not occur with known, academic dexterous hands.

In contrasting known dexterous hands to known grippers, it is also important to note the end-effector, aka the tool, of a robotic arm faces the greatest extremes of any robotic system. The extreme location of end effectors at the tip of the robotic arm has four consequences.

1. It is usually the first part of the robot to make impact with obstacles. 2. It is the fastest moving part of the robot. 3. It is nearest part of the robot to the extreme conditions that necessitated the use of a robot in the first place, like the pelting of molten weld splatter. 4. More than any other part, its mass (and that of any additional payload) requires a disproportionate fraction of joint torque.

With or without machine-vision, robot arms crash end effectors into immovable obstacles. Most frequently, the immovable obstacle is the target payload or task itself. Errors in robot trajectories during programming and misplaced payloads after programming are the usual culprits. Generally, it is expected that the end effector will be designed to withstand these impacts or be easily (and cheaply) replaced. These considerations have also deterred the adoption of dexterous hands for commercial applications. In short, known dexterous hands are not practical.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A robotic device has a base and at least one finger having at least two links that are connected in series on rotary joints with at least two degrees of freedom. An actuator, such as a brushless motor, and an associated controller are located at each joint to produce a rotational movement of a link. Wires for electrical power and communication connect the controllers in a distributed control network. A network operating controller coordinates the operation of the network, including power distribution. At least one, but more typically two to five, wires interconnect all the controllers through one or more rotary joints. Motor sensors and external world sensors monitor operating parameters of the robotic hand. The electrical signal output of the sensors can be input anywhere on the distributed control network. The device is self-contained in that the actuators, sensors and controls are all on the device itself. This device is also practical.

In one form, the invention is defined broadly as a self-contained, practical robotic device energized by a power source and adapted to manipulate objects which includes a base, at least one finger mounted on said base having at least first and second links rotatably connected in series to one another at a rotary joint and connected at a proximate end of said first link to the base, said at least one finger having at least two degrees of freedom associated with at least two of said rotary joints, comprising an actuator mounted on said robotic device at each said rotary joint and operable to move an associated link about the associated one of said rotary joint, an electronic controller located proximate each of said actuators to control and power the associated one of said actuators, wiring within said robotic device that connects said controllers and said associated actuators to the power source and interactively connects said controllers to one another on a shared bus to form a distributed control network, and a network operating controller interactively connected by said wiring to all said actuator controllers, said network operating controller coordinating the operation of said actuators through said distributed network of said actuator controllers.

In other forms, V-grooves on the robotic hand locate objects precisely and assist in gripping. The hand is sealed, immersible and has electrical connections through the rotary joints for anodizing in a single dunk without masking. In various forms, this intelligent, self-contained, dexterous hand, or combinations of such hands, can perform a wide variety of object gripping and manipulating tasks, as well as locomotion and combinations of locomotion and gripping.

The invention includes a process for anodizing the device in a single immersion, without premasking. This process, broadly stated, is defined as one for anodizing a robotic device having structural components rotatably connected to one another at rotary joints, the robotic device having an outer housing formed of an electrically conductive material that forms at least one interior cavity that contains electrical components of the robotic device, comprising providing anodizing solution, sealing the exterior of said housing to prevent a flow of said anodizing solution into said at least one interior cavity when the device is immersed in said anodizing solution, electrically connecting all of the exterior structural components of the robotic device, including the rotary joints, immersing said sealed and electrically connected robotic device in said anodizing solution, and applying an electrical current through the solution and the immersed robotic device to effect an anodizing of all the exposed exterior surfaces of the robotic device without a pre-masking of the robotic device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a view in perspective of an exemplary prior art workcell where a robotic arm and tool manipulates and assembles components using tools held within a workcell on a tool rack and with the assembly guided by a vision system including multiple remote cameras;

FIG. 2 shows a comparable workcell utilizing a robotic hand according to the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a view in perspective of a three-fingered robotic hand according to the present invention shown with two fingers rotated to an open position;

FIG. 4A is a top plan view of the robotic hand shown in FIG. 3 with all three fingers shown in parallel alignment and with the finger links rotated to a position generally coplanar with an opposed palm plate;

FIG. 4B is a view in vertical section taken along the line BâB in FIG. 4A ;

FIG. 4C is an enlarged view of the second link in associated articulated joints as shown in FIG. 4B ;

FIG. 4D is a view taken along the line DâD in FIG. 4A ;

FIG. 4E is a view taken along the line EâE in FIG. 4A ;

FIG. 5 is a detailed view in perspective, with portions broken away, of the rotary joint and associated motors, controllers and through-joint wiring of the joint shown in FIGS. 4Aâ4C between the first and second links of a laterally movable, or âsweepâ finger;

FIG. 6A is a simplified view in side elevation of the robotic hand of FIGS. 2â5 showing the physical location of the controllers and sensors.

FIG. 6B is a schematic view of the distributed control architecture shown in FIG. 6A .

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of the control system architecture of the robotic hand according to the present invention and as shown in FIGS. 3â6B ;

FIG. 8 is a more detailed schematic diagram of the control system architecture shown in FIG. 7 ;

FIGS. 9â11 are a more detailed schematic functional block representation of the control system shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 , with FIG. 7 showing the NOD chip function and CAN communications protocol controller which communicates with the TATER local control shown in FIG. 10 , which in turn communicates with the FET controller, including conventional commutator logic as shown in FIGS. 10 and 11 ;

FIG. 12 is a view in perspective of the robotic hand according to the present invention and shown in FIGS. 2â11 with its three fingers gripping a sheet of material between the fingers and a palm plate;

FIG. 13 is a perspective view of two opposed fingers of the robotic hands of the present invention equipped with fingernails and having V-groove gripping capability at the fingertips to secure an elongated object, a pencil as shown;

FIG. 14A is a view in perspective of another embodiment of a dexterous robotic hand according to the present invention adapted for gripping and manipulating elongated objects, particularly ones that can exhibit a high angular moment of inertia;

FIGS. 14BâE are views in vertical cross-section of the robotic hand shown in FIG. 14A illustrating its versatility in gripping objects with a wide variety of cross-sectional configurations and sizes;

FIGS. 15A and 15B are views in side elevation of the dexterous robotic hand shown in FIGS. 3â11 used as a fixture in processing a workpiece, a grinding operation as shown;

FIG. 16 is a view of another embodiment of the invention adapted for replaceably securing a large sheet object;

FIG. 17 is a view in perspective of another embodiment of the invention using light source and light detector pairs as sensors for object (a cylinder) location;

FIG. 18 is a view in perspective of another embodiment of the invention using light sources and light detectors mounted as sensors on a dexterous robotic hand to locate an object, shown here as a ball, in space by ranging and triangulation;

FIG. 19 is a view in perspective of a robotic device according to the present invention using two robotic hands of the type shown in FIGS. 3â11 mounted back-to-back with an intermediate, power supply for combined locomotion and manipulation; and

FIG. 20 is a view in side elevation and partially in section of a robotic device of the type shown in FIGS. 2â11 operated to dig into the ground to retrieve a buried or submerged object.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

In existing practical robotic systems such as the workcell shown in FIG. 1 , the intelligence and dexterity are concentrated around the static workcell area 12 and on the robotic arm 14 or other moving platform that supports a prior art tool 8 , but never at the tool itself. While several intelligent and dexterous research-prototype robotic hands have been built in order to emulate human hand motion or to study the mathematics of multi-fingered manipulation, these devices are not designed to make a complete system more useful for completing practical tasks. For example, in order to design such a hand, either the hand is not compact or the sizable electronics are located outside the hand. As a result, applicants are not aware of any being used in a commercial application.

The tool 8 , which comes in direct contact with the task, here the assembly of parts A transported on conveyor 16 A to one of parts B transported on conveyor 16 B moving in the opposite direction, is merely a peripheral. Control is centered remote from the tool 8 and arm 14 in a control box 18 connected to the arm and tool by a bundle 20 of power and communication wires. Remote cameras

22 , 22 provide vision guidance for the operation of the arm and tool. Vision is limited by obstructions in the line of sight to certain locations.

FIG. 2 shows a robotic hand 10 according to the present invention that, like a conventional gripper tool 8 , replaceably mounts on a tool plate 24 secured at the end of the robotic arm 14 . However, the workcell 26 in FIG. 2 has no control box 18 , no wire bundle 20 , and no remote cameras

22 , 22 .

The robotic hand 10 of the present invention radically reorganizes robotic systems by moving all or some of the intelligence, dexterity, and sensor capability out to the tool itself, resulting in a tool-centric system. To do this, high intelligence, dexterity, and sensors are concentrated at the tool, shown here as the robotic hand 10 . In this new model of robotic systems, the workcells, robotic arms, and mobile platforms become the peripherals. The hand 10 is practical and sophisticated. Note that the sophistication of hand 10 allows the elimination of a tool changer with attendant significant cost savings, and may reduce the number of tools in the tool rack 28 ( FIG. 1 ). Herein, the robotic hand 10 may also be referred to as a tool or device. Also, the same reference number is used for like parts in different embodiments.

The articulated structure of the robot arm and hand places a high cost on physically routing signal wires, and therefore on communications bandwidth. This difficulty militates strongly against placing sensors S, especially bandwidth-intensive vision camera(s), at the tool. (Infrared and radio communications are bandwidth-challenged, especially in noisy and occluded environments.) The same reasoning discourages giving the tool or hand too much dexterity, the motors of which would have to be remotely powered from the base of the robotic arm.

The robotic hand 10 is organized directly opposite to the conventional wisdomâit is hand-centric. This characteristic is a high level definition of the present invention. This hand-centricity derives from localized actuators 30 for each joint 32 of the hand and a distributed, interactive control architecture 34 that places control, at least in part, at each actuator in a control module 36 termed herein a âpuckâ due to its presently preferred hockey puck-like outer configuration. The control architecture includes a central âNODâ controller 38 . Each puck includes a controller 40 , termed herein âTATERâ, that interactively communicates with the NOD controller 38 and other TATERS 40 at other joints 32 . Each TATER controller also communicates with an associated controller 42 for the associated actuator 30 . In the preferred form shown, the actuator is a small D.C. brushless motor, and the controller 42 produces commutated drive signals for such a D.C. brushless motor, and is termed herein a âFETâ controller.

With particular reference to FIGS. 7â11 , communication is preferably via a CANbus protocol that conforms to known ISO standards. As will be discussed in greater detail below, the basic TDMA, 8 byte packet protocol of CAN, operating at, e.g. 1 MHz, has a higher level program (HLP) overlaid to provide a communications language for the hand control system.

Power is supplied via a 2-wire line with an optional third line for a safety ground. It is D.C., preferably at 24 volts, but can adapt to other voltages such as 42 volts or 48 volts. Maximum current is presently recommended as 20 amperes for each hand 10 . The CANbus 82 is implemented using 2-wire communication, so that only four wires W need be routed to power and control the entire network. It is also contemplated that the communications signals can be carried on the power lines as a carrier, thus reducing the power and communications to a two-wire system. It is also possible, although not preferred, to use the metallic structural components of the hand 10 electrically connected through the rotary joints as a common electrical ground line, allowing use of only one power and signal wire. It is also significant that the hand 10 , which has nine segments, has segment-to-segment electrical connection through the joints. This is important for controlling electrostatic discharge, isolating electromagnetic noise in the workcell from the robot control, and permitting single-dunk, unmasked anodization discussed below.

Turning to the construction of the hand 10 and its kinematics, the general configuration, a palm plate 44 and three fingers 46 , each with three

links

48 , 50 and 52 and two joints

32 a and 32 b , is of the general type described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,957,320 and 5,501,498 to Ulrich. One finger, 46 a here, is stationary with respect to movement in the plane of the palm 44 . The fingers

46 b and 46 c are articulated at a base 54 to rotate about parallel axes, to âspreadâ the fingers. This general design is dexterous, capable of gripping, grasping, and manipulation of a wide variety of objects. (The actuation of the fingers described in the Ulrich '320 and '498 patents is by cable transmission from one drive per finger, and electronic control is centralized and remote from the joints.)

In the robotic hand 10 of the present invention, all axes of articulation are driven by dedicated, independent motors, except the spread action of fingers

46 b and 46 c , which can be driven by either two independent motors or, as shown, one motor 30 a which couples both spread axes so that they spread synchronously around the palm 44 . In this second mode they are as described in the Ulrich '320 and '498 patents.

The hand 10 has eight axes of articulation, with one spread axis and two controllable joints per finger. The spread range is 180Â°. The inner finger joint 32 a rotation range is 140Â°, and the outer finger joint 32 b rotation range is 270Â°.

By way of illustration, but not of limitation, the fingers 46 a â 46 c each have a length of 330 mm, and the base has a diameter of 150 mm. The hand width is 192 mm, the height is 115 mm, and its total weight is 7.5 kg. The grasp force at a fingertip is about 100N, and the static payload for three fingers is 120 kg.

The hand 10 contains all motors, sensors and all controls, servo and supervisory. Base plate 54 a is adapted with pins 56 a and holes 56 b to mate replaceably with a tool plate 24 or the like. However, the hand can be stationary, e.g. to function as an intelligent fixture or clamp on a machine tool for a part being machined. The base houses the D.C. brushless motor 30 a that has an axis of rotation orthogonal to the base plate 54 a and the palm plate 44 . A pinion 58 (best seen in FIG. 4D ) is mounted on the rotor shaft 60 . It engages a gear trainâconsisting of a reduction gear pair 120 , an idler gear 122 , and two output gears 124 , 124 âthat produces the coordinated spread movement of fingers

46 b and 46 c . In each finger, motor 30 b drives the rotation of âinnerâ joint 32 a , and motor 30 c drives the rotation of âouterâ joint 32 b . A miniature 3-phase D.C. brushless motor with rare earth magnets 64 of samarium cobalt alloy is preferred. Three pairs of N-S magnets of bread loaf design are typical. The basic motor can be obtained from manufacturers such as Kollmorgen. These motors are small and light. They develop a high torque with good efficiency. They have a low inertia and are very responsive. The motor can have a maximum outer diameter of 1Â¼â³, which is compatible with it being placed within a link.

The finger motors

30 b and 30 c are customized with a rotor shaft 60 â² that has an integral worm gear 62 formed at its output end exterior to the motor housing 67 . The motor coils are stationary in a stator 65 . The magnets 64 are mounted on the rotor with a slight air gap to the stator 96 , e.g. 0.015 inch. It is important that there are no bearings within the motors

30 b and 30 c . The rotor is supported and mounted in a spaced relationship within the stator by external needle bearings

66 , 66 and secured axially by an external thrust roller bearing 68 and thrust ball bearing 69 . The load of the interaction between the worm and a gear 70 for joint 32 a is radial to the rotor, and opposed by the needle bearings, or equivalent ball thrust bearings. The absence of brushes and internal bearings eliminates friction and enhances the performance of the motor. This arrangement also allows a âdrop inâ assembly of the motor and the associated bearings. An interference friction fit at the needle bearings holds the proper alignment of the rotor shaft when loaded radially.

The worm 62 and entrained gear 70 provide a significant reduction gear ratio. As an example, a determination of the position of the rotors

60 , 60 â² within 200 can provide a precision in the motion of the link secured to the gear 70 of about 0.5 degree. It is also significant that if a link is blocked, or power is cut off, the rotor locks in position provided the worm 62 has a worm pitch angle on the order of a few degrees, e.g. 5Â°Â±2Â°.

The motor 30 c has a like construction and like mode of operation to drive the outer finger joint 32 b through an associated gear 72 . The responsiveness of this drive and transmission is such that the hand 10 can reconfigure in about 100 milliseconds.

Each motor 30 has associated with it, and positioned immediately adjacent to the associated motor, one of the pucks 36 . The puck 36 includes circular P.C. boards

74 and 76 in generally parallel spaced relation potted in a conventional resin with good thermal conductivity that is electrically insulating. Board 74 generally corresponds to the âTATERâ controller and board 76 is the FET controller board. Independent actuators and control are therefore provided at each controllable articulated joint (with the spread motor 30 a and its associated puck providing synchronous spread for two fingers). The TATER board 74 has a digital signal processor or microprocessor. DSP Chip Model TMS320 LF2403A manufactured by Texas Instruments is one exemplary suitable such chip. A similar chip can be used to implement <

CLAIMS

Claims ( 31 )

1. A self-contained, practical robotic device energized by a power source and adapted to interact with objects comprises:

a base,

at least one finger mounted on said base having at least first and second links rotatably connected in series to one another at a rotary joint and connected at a proximate end of said first link to the base, said at least one finger having at least two degrees of freedom associated with at least two of said rotary joints,

an actuator mounted on said robotic device at each said rotary joint, said actuator being a source of motive force operable to produce movement of an associated link about the associated one of said rotary joint,

an electronic controller located proximate each of said actuators to control and power the associated one of said actuators,

wiring within said robotic device that connects said controllers and said associated actuators to the power source and interactively connects said controllers to one another on a shared bus to form a distributed control network, and

a network operating controller interactively connected by said wiring to all said actuator controllers, said network operating controller coordinating the operation of said actuators through said distributed network of said actuator controllers.

2. The self-contained, practical robotic device of claim 1 further comprising at least one sensor mounted on the robotic device that produces an output electrical signal responsive to a sensed operating parameter of the robotic device, and said output signal is input to said distributed network of controllers.

3. The self-contained, practical robotic device of claim 2 wherein said at least one sensor includes transducers and transducer arrays wherein said electrical input signal of each said transducer is responsive to one or more parameters selected from the group consisting of proximity, torque, force, pressure, actuator position, actuator power usage, actuator current, voltage, vision, radiation, acidity, gravity vectors, acceleration, spectrum analysis, and temperature.

4. The self-contained, practical robotic device of claim 3 wherein said at least one sensor responsive to said vision parameter is mounted on the exterior of said robotic device to provide to said distributed control network real time vision information about the objects and their relationship to the robotic device.

5. The self-contained, practical robotic device of claim 3 wherein said sensor comprises at least one pair of an electromagnetic radiation source and an electromagnetic radiation transducer responsive to the output of said source, said sensor pair being positioned on said robotic device to detect the objects.

6. The self-contained, practical robotic device of claim 5 wherein said sensor pairs are positioned and said robotic device for ranging to the objects and triangulation of said ranging information to locate the objects with respect to the robotic device.

7. The self-contained, practical robotic device of claim 3 wherein said sensor comprises a force transducer mounted on the robotic device to detect contact of the robotic device with the object and said output signal is input to said distributed control network to back drive said actuators in response to said contact.

8. The self-contained, practical robotic device of claim 3 wherein said sensor comprises light emitters and light detectors mounted on the device and located to sense the presence of an object within the grasp of the robotic device.

9. The self-contained, practical robotic device of claim 3 wherein said sensors comprise light emitters and light detectors mounted in pairs on the tips of the outermost of said links of each of said fingers and said network controller operates them to measure distance to an object.

10. The self-contained, practical robotic device of claim 1 wherein said wiring comprises one to five wires through said network serially connecting said actuator and network controllers.

11. The self-contained, practical robotic device of claim 1 wherein the power source is electrical and wherein said wiring comprises two signal wires and two power wires.

12. The self-contained, practical robotic device of claim 1 , wherein said at least one finger comprises at least two fingers and each has at least two links serially connected by said rotating joints.

13. The self-contained, practical robotic device of claim 12 wherein the base has a palm surface generally aligned with an X-Y plane and further comprising object gripping pads replaceably secured on said palm surface and at least one of said links.

14. The self-contained, practical robotic device of claim 13 wherein one or more of said pads include V-grooves adapted to grip and locate the objects therein.

15. The self-contained, practical robotic device of claim 12 wherein the outermost link on each of said fingers is inwardly angled.

16. The self-contained, practical robotic device of claim 15 further comprising a fingernail-like gripping plate secured at the end of each of said angled links, said gripping plates providing a V-groove for edge-gripping and locating the objects.

17. The self-contained, practical robotic device of claim 1 wherein said rotating links are electrically connected across the associated rotary joint.

18. The self-contained, practical robotic device of claim 1 wherein said controllers and their interactive networking function as said network controller.

19. The self-contained, practical robotic device of claim 1 wherein said network controller is an electronic device distinct from said actuator controllers.

20. The self-contained, practical robotic device of claim 1 wherein said coordination of operation includes an allocation of power to each actuator from the power source.

21. The self-contained, practical robotic device of claim 1 wherein said actuators are brushless motors.

22. The self-contained, practical robotic device of claim 21 wherein said actuators include a worm drive coupling each of said brushless motors to one of said links to rotate it at the associated one of said joints.

23. A self-contained, practical robotic device of claim 21 wherein said brushless motor has a housing, a rotor that extends axially in one direction exterior to the motor housing, and bearings that rotatably support the rotor solely at its exterior extending portion.

24. The self-contained, practical robotic device of claim 23 wherein said exterior extending portion carries a worm gear and wherein said link rotated by said brushless motor at said associated rotary joint is secured to a gear that engages said worm gear so that rotation of said rotor produces a corresponding, reduced rotation of said associated link about the axis of said associated rotary joint.

25. The self-contained, practical robotic device of claim 24 wherein said wiring is spiral wound within each said rotary joint.

26. The self-contained, practical robotic device according to claim 1 wherein said base has a surface adapted to engage and grip the object in cooperation with a gripping of the objects by said at least one finger.

27. The self-contained, practical robotic device of claim 26 , wherein said base has a gripping surface extending generally in an X-Y plane, and wherein said at least one finger comprises at least two fingers with one finger fixed at its first link against movement in said X-Y plane, and at least one other of said fingers moveable in said X-Y plane about one of said rotary joints.

28. The self-contained, practical robotic device of claim 27 , wherein said at least one other finger comprises two of said fingers that are both rotatable in the X-Y plane between positions aligned with, and positions opposable to, said X-Y plane fixed finger.

29. The self-contained, practical robotic device according to claim 26 , wherein said objects are elongated in a first direction, said base also extends in said first direction, and said at least one finger comprises at least two fingers that are mutually spaced along said first direction and oriented to grip the elongated object against said base surface.

30. The self-contained, practical robotic device of claim 29 , wherein said base is a fixture and wherein said objects are workpieces that are each releasably held on said fixture by said at least one finger for processing.

31. The self-contained, practical robotic device of claim 1 further comprising at least one gripping pad having a V-groove formed therein.

US10/672,888

2002-09-26

2003-09-26

Intelligent, self-contained robotic hand

Expired - Lifetime

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Ultra-compact, high-performance motor controller and method of using same

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2002-09-26

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Ultra-compact, high-performance motor controller and method of using same

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