Robot Mechanisms and Mechanical Devices Illustrated - Profe Saul

246 Chapter 10 Manipulator Geometries
Figure 10-4 Gantry, simply
supported using tracks or slides,
working from outside the work
envelope.
180°. This not only reduces the stowed volume,
but also reduces any dead spaces. Many industrial
robots and teleoperated vehicles use this or a
similar design for their manipulators.
Figure 10-5
Cantilevered manipulator geometry
CARTESIAN OR RECTANGULAR
On a mobile robot, the manipulator almost
always works beyond the edge of the chassis and
must be able to reach from ground level to above
the height of the robot’s body. This means the
manipulator arm works from inside or from one
side of the work envelope. Some industrial gantry
manipulators work from outside their work envelope,
and it would be difficult indeed to use their
layouts on a mobile robot. As shown in Figure
10-4, gantry manipulators are Cartesian or rectangular
manipulators. This geometry looks like
a three dimensional XYZ coordinate system. In
fact, that is how it is controlled and how the
working end moves around in the work envelope.
There are two basic layouts based on how the