Simulation Of The POWERCUBE Modular Manipulator In MSRS And ODE

Manipulator is a high value-added , wide application range and very important automatic equipment in the modern industry which has integrate mechanics, electronics, control theory, computer science and artificial intelligence, it can replace human to do some dangerous work, so in the recent years, more and more scholors pay attention on the manipulator. Due to the complexity of its technology, and the high research cost, modular has become the development tendency in this domain. The simulation study of modular manipulator is based on the PowerCube module produced by German AMTEC Corporation and the MSRS software, ODE.Firstly, the combined actual situation of PowerCube module determined the number, distribution and type of the degrees of freedom in the manipulator. According the degrees of freedom and different location distribution mode to build a modular manipulator as the studied manipulator in this paper, the PowerCube modular manipulator combined by four PR70 modules (each module has one degree of freedom), one PW70 module (wrist, two degrees of freedom) and four linkages.For mathematical analysis, the actual structure is simplified reasonably and the mathematical model is obtained. Based on the mathematical model, the forward kinematics and inverse kinematics are analyzed thoroughly, and formulas of forward and inverse kinematics are derived.In the analysis stage, the manipulator's workspace is analyzed. Based on the research of the manipulator's workspace form and solution, the 2D workspace of the established manipulator is given simply. The endeffector of the manipulator is or not in the workspace must be considered in the simulation. Using the C# program to establish the corresponding restraint, the physical model and control panel of the manipulator in Visual Studio, then debugging into the interface of MSRS software to simulate the designed manipulator's movement and the simulation results are drawn related graph. Finally, the simulation results are analyzed to show the effectiveness of the kinematics analysis and the designed structure.Using ODE and OpenGL to simulate the designed manipulators's movement and the simulation results show the effectiveness of the kinematics analysis and the designed structure again.