Design and Control of Mechanical Systems

我的研究方案现在比之前的方案更广泛。针对机动性降低的系统的应用程序的基本工作正在顺利进行。接下来的工作将集中在快速拾取放置(P&P)机器人的动态平衡上。两个机器人的工作将继续进行，它们使用两自由度驱动(Two-DOF)，被称为C-Drive，这是我在Lie群的框架内，基于核心理论运动学从头开始设计的，然后进入概念层面、实施、详细设计，最后进行调试。两个相同的原型现在已经安装在一个四自由度的机器人上，以实现快速的P&P操作和几乎无限的夹爪旋转，这是一个台湾团队提出的架构。最后一项功能是一项重大成就，旨在回应用户具有挑战性的功能：至少具有180度的手爪旋转能力。目前的商业系统对这一挑战的回应是高度复杂的机制，这些机制是已知的、非记录的、是故障的来源。*第二个系统目前处于详细设计阶段，是一个六自由度的斯图尔特-高夫平台(SGP)。与SGPS的标准六脚结构相反，我的是一个三脚架，它是通过三个C驱动实现的。这是一个重大的简化，将增加平台的机动性。*在我多年来的研究工作中，我发现了机器人和机电一体化系统发展中的一个瓶颈：缺乏合适的现成驱动器。与系统架构本身相比，机器人和机电一体化系统中所需的机械传动系统受到的关注要少得多。因此，我计划继续我在机械传动设计中的基本问题上的工作，从连杆到凸轮机构再到齿轮传动。我将继续在这三个方面工作。10多年前，我与两名欧洲同事一起发起了一项关于一个基本问题的研究：轴倾斜、齿渐开的齿轮对有可能吗？这个问题在2003年出版的一本专著中得到了部分解答，但所讨论的齿轮副只与一对渐开线齿之间的点接触啮合，而不是线接触。我们现在处于展示这种线接触齿轮副是可能的最后阶段。几何工作就这样奠定了，但我们的基本成果所产生的工程研究工作是巨大的。在这项提议中，我的部分工作将是与工业和其他加拿大研究中心合作，开发用于工业应用的此类齿轮，在那里可以获得完成所需的硬件和软件手段。在这项工作中，不仅各级研究生，本科生和技术人员都将发挥关键作用。*

My research proposal is now broader than the previous one. The fundamental work targeting applications aimed at systems with reduced mobility is well under way. The work ahead along these lines will now focus on the dynamic balancing of a fast pick-and-place (P&P) robot. Work will continue on  two robots that use the two-degree-of-freedom drive (two-dof), dubbed C-drive, that I designed from scratch, based on hard-core theoretical kinematics, in the framework of Lie groups, then went on to the conceptual level, the embodiment, the detailed design, and on to the commissioning. Two identical prototypes have now been mounted on a four-dof robot for fast P&P operations and virtually unlimited rotatability of its gripper, an architecture proposed by a Taiwanese team. The last feature is a major achievement, that aims to respond to a users' challenging feature: a 180-deg rotation capability of the gripper as a minimum. Current commercial systems have responded to this challenge with highly complex mechanisms that are known, off-the-record, to be sources of failure.***A second system, currently at the detailed design stage, is a six-dof Stewart-Gough Platform (SGP). Contrary to the standard hexapod architecture of SGPs, mine is a tripod, which was achieved by means of three C-drives. This is a major simplification that will increase the mobility of the platform.***In my research work through the years I have identified a bottleneck in the development of robotic and mechatronic systems: the lack of suitable off-the-shelf drives. The mechanical transmissions needed in robotic and mechatronic systems have received much less attention than the system architecture itself. I am thus planning to continue my work on fundamental issues within the design of mechanical transmissions, from linkages to cam mechanisms and on to gear transmissions. I will continue working on all three fronts. More than 10 years ago I initiated, with two European colleagues, work on one fundamental question: Are pairs of gears with skew axes and involute teeth possible? The question was partly answered in a monograph published in 2003, but the gear pairs in question would mesh only with punctual contact between the pair of involute teeth, as opposed to line contact. We are now in the final stages of showing that such gear pairs, with line contact, are possible. The geometry work has thus been laid down, but the engineering research work generated by our fundamental results is enormous. A part of my work in this proposal will be in the development of such gears for industrial applications in collaboration with industry and other Canadian research centres, where the hardware and the software means needed for completion are available. In this work not only graduate students at all  levels, but also undergraduates and technicians will play a key role.*** **