Design and analysis of a mobile robot for storage and retrieval system

Abstract

The growth of the automation industry has been staggering and its continued growth has imbibed life to an aging industry. The application of robots has reduced the workload of humans and frees up the workforce off of monotonous, non-creative jobs and can be efficiently utilized for more fulfilling jobs. The aim of this research is to design and analyze a mobile robot for a storage and retrieval system. The robot has the objective of translating long racks in storage houses to different locations, instead of transporting the individual components in the racks. The main task of lifting the racks will be accomplished using a lead screw mechanism and a differential drive is used as the main drive. The challenges faced were mainly, distributing the load concentration equally along the chassis to ensure maximum stability and limiting the weight ratio of the robot to the racks to an optimal number. Design and analysis of the robot were carried out using CATIA and ANSYS, respectively.