An Integrated Method for Workspace Computation of Robot Manipulator

Exact computation of the workspace of robot manipulator is very important for its optimum design and application. Some analytical methods were proposed to study three dimensional (3D) workspace of robot manipulator. Unfortunately, these methods are not suitable from engineering standpoint due to their complexities in mathematics. In the paper, an integrated approach based on numerical calculation and solid modeling software, is presented to create 3D robot workspace. Firstly, a numerical method based on random probability is used to generate the planar boundary curves of a spatial robot in its main working plane. Then, the 3D shape and volume of robot workspace are generated by commercial software Unigraphics, by importing the boundary curves into software and adopting some simple operations. One example is presented in the paper to illustrate the method.