Design of a Low-Cost Manipulator Arm for Industrial Fields

This study aims to build a manipulator arm defined by its universality, mobility, modularity, compatibility and economy. We develop an important part of both the basic and detail engineering required for the manufacture of a robotic arm. We propose some peculiarities in the design which differentiate it from other existing designs-namely, we use only linear pneumatic actuators in order to reduce production costs and to have a simple design for installation, starting and maintenance. To develop the design, last generation CAD-CAE software tools are used. These tools are employed for mechanical design and modelling as well as for dynamic simulation, mechanism analyses and the design and simulation of the pneumatic scheme. We define a complete design process and discuss applications designed for the manipulator arm. Once the basic specifications of the design are defined, we discuss the experimental prototype that was built. Based on that prototype, the design was refined until reaching its final version. We then developed a manipulator arm driven by pneumatic actuators.