Design and Control of Mechanical Systems

我现在的研究计划比以前的要广泛。针对机动性降低的系统的应用程序的基本工作正在进行中。接下来的工作将集中在快速拾取机器人的动态平衡上。工作将继续在两个机器人上使用两自由度驱动（two-dof），被称为c驱动，这是我从零开始设计的，基于核心理论运动学，在李群的框架下，然后进入概念层面，具体化，详细设计，并进行调试。两台相同的原型机现已安装在一个四足机器人上，用于快速P&P操作，其抓手几乎可以无限旋转，这是一个台湾团队提出的结构。最后一个功能是一项重大成就，旨在响应用户的挑战性功能：夹持器至少具有180度旋转能力。目前的商业系统已经用高度复杂的机制来应对这一挑战，这些机制是已知的，没有记录的，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Stewart-Gough平台（SGP）。与sgp的标准六足架结构相反，我的是一个三脚架，这是通过三个c驱动器实现的。这是一个主要的简化，将增加平台的移动性。***在我多年的研究工作中，我发现了机器人和机电系统发展的瓶颈：缺乏合适的现成驱动器。机器人和机电一体化系统中需要的机械传动比系统结构本身受到的关注要少得多。因此，我计划在机械传动设计的基本问题上继续我的工作，从连杆到凸轮机构和齿轮传动。我将继续在这三个方面努力。十多年前，我和两位欧洲同事开始研究一个基本问题：有可能出现斜轴和渐开线齿的齿轮对吗？这个问题在2003年出版的一本专著中得到了部分回答，但是所讨论的齿轮副只与渐开线齿对之间的准时接触啮合，而不是线接触。我们现在正处于最后阶段，显示这样的齿轮对，与线接触，是可能的。几何学的工作就这样奠定了，但是由我们的基本成果所产生的工程研究工作是巨大的。我在这项提案中的一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这种齿轮，在那里完成所需的硬件和软件手段是可用的。在这项工作中，不仅各级研究生，而且本科生和技术人员也将发挥关键作用。* * * * *

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.*** **