Multibody Dynamic Simulation of a Hyper Redundant Robotic Manipulator using ADAMS - Ansys Interaction

A Continuum type hyper redundant robotic manipulator is a special kind of manipulator inspired by the anatomy and operation of an elephant trunk. A novel type multi-sectioned arm with a continuous back bone curve is considered for the multibody dynamic simulation using ADAMS (Automatic Dynamic Analysis for Multi-body Systems) software. In this paper, the construction and working of the bio-inspired arm is discussed, followed by the numerical simulation of the shape of the back bone curve of each of the section using ADAMS - Ansys interaction. The geometric non-linearity experienced by the arm during actuation is simplified by predicting the curvature of each section and then coupling them end to end to obtain the overall shape of the backbone curve. For this work, ADAMS command language is used to create a research platform to test the kinematics of the arm with user specified parameters. The robot end effector position can be obtained for any geometry and end load using this platform.