Design, construction and control of a SCARA robot prototype with 5 DOF

Abstract

The SCARA robot is one of the most important robots and a standard in industrial robotics worldwide. Scara's are able to move with ease horizontally but have difficulties to move vertically. Given the characteristics of its workspace it's difficult for this robot to grow its range of applications as soon as significant height changes are required. One of the devised ways to overcome the height limitations found in the SCARA, is the addition of a fifth degree of freedom in its base. This research shows the robotic design in different CAD software, construction through additive and subtractive manufacturing, and control by means of mathematical models and programming of a SCARA robot prototype with five degrees of freedom. The experimental results demonstrate that, a fifth degree of freedom implemented in the base of a SCARA is a viable way to increase its vertical workspace. These results also demonstrate new capabilities for performance in new applications, higher versatility, economical installation and ease of adaptation to changes of location or application.