On the Development of a Direct-Drive SCARA Robot

직접구훈(直接驅勳) 방식(方式)의 SCARA형(型) 로봇의 개발(開發)에 관(關)하여

Direct-drive SCARA-type industrial robots are increasingly used in the assembly process of small mechanical parts as well as electronic components, which uses direct-drive (DD) motors instead of reduction gear-type conventional motors for the actuators of manipulator arms. There are many advantages in using DD motors for robots, such as no backlash, low friction, high mechanical stiffness capability for fast and precise arm control, and high repeatability of positioning. However, there exist a number of difficulties which must be overcome to ensure proper construction and operation; increasing effects of load veriation and nonlinear and coupling dynamics, severe vibration caused by resonance of the manipulator components and low mechanical damping, etc. In order to handle these difficulties, lots of efforts have been made such as reduction of the arm inertia and elimination of the resonance, Performance evaluation of a recently developed, domestic DD robot shows that it works excellently compared with conventional robots. It, however, requires proved reliability and price competitiveness against its foreign counterparts.