Design and Development of a Small-Scale 5-DOF 3D Printed Robot Manipulator

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies became commercially available relatively recently but already found numerous applications in many industrial fields. The robotics industry is one of the fields that can potentially benefit from implementing 3D printing technologies. The combination of industrial robots and additive manufacturing technologies provides manufacturers with the ability to fabricate large and heavy products with high dimensional accuracy and automate this manufacturing process. The robotics industry lacks its own manufacturing facilities and has to outsource special orders to manufacturing companies. Outsourcing, however, implies additional expenses and time delays. Therefore, the relevance of integrating additive manufacturing into the robotics industry is the objective of research since it can considerably favor the development of this industry. The primary aim of this work is to develop and design 5 DOF 3D printed robotic manipulators. The developed model of the manipulator was tested via numerical simulations. The results clearly demonstrated the areas of stress concentration and the areas of the prototype that are subjected to the least stress. This set of results helped to perform topological optimization and improve the design and performance of the robotic manipulator. The optimized model was manufactured using the method of fused deposition modelling. The manipulator was assembled and actuated by six servo motors. The current progress of the research will be followed by the development of the control algorithm and performance evaluation to estimate the functionality of the manipulator. Distribution of the infill density throughout the assembly to reduce the material without losing the strength of the assembly is another important object of concern.