Design of an instrumented multifunctional foot for application to a heavy duty mobile robot manufacturing system

Abstract

The design of a multifunctional foot for application to a mobile robotic system for heavy duty manufacturing is presented. The requirements for a target manufacturing task are presented and translated into requirements for the mobile robotic system, and specifically for the feet of this system. This includes: the ability of the feet to change frictional properties, the ability of the foot to operate without a direct power source, and load bearing requirements for heavy duty tooling. The mechanical design to meet these requirements for these feet is presented. Stability analysis is shown, and it is used to determine several design parameters to meet the goals of the project. The development of a series of iterations of prototypes is discussed. Manufacturing techniques, choice of materials, alignment strategies and assembly practices are explained. Appendices include information about several of the important design milestones. A sensing methodology is introduced. Computer simulations of magnetic fields to estimate the effectiveness of this methodology are performed. Experimental results are shown to match the simulations. A final functional prototype is shown. Testing is performed on this prototype to verify that it meets the functional requirements desired for the system.