The Application of the Grey-based Taguchi Method to Optimize the Global Performances of the Robot Manipulator

This paper presents the procedure and the results of the multi-objective optimization of the design of a seven degrees of freedom (7DOF) robot manipulator for better global performance, which pertains to the global conditioning, global manipulability, and structural length indices. The Taguchi method was used to reduce the time needed to analyze the global performance of the robot manipulator. Grey relational analysis was performed to deal with the multiple performances of the manipulator by converting multiple responses into a single response with a Grey relational grade. Analysis of variance ( ANOVA) was done to analyze the effect of the link parameters on the performance of the robot manipulator, and to determine which link parameter affects the performance of the robot manipulator. The results of the optimization of the prototype robot manipulator and the comparison of the optimization results with those of an earlier study are presented herein.