The design and kinematic control of a 9-joint robotic manipulator for car interior applications

The design of a robotic manipulator with three degrees of redundancy for car interior assembly applications in the automotive industry is presented. The design is based on the requirements of providing six degrees of freedom for the main task execution inside the car body while the main body of robot is positioned outside the car. Flexibility and capabilities of the robot are greatly enhanced. The nine-joint structure provides three null space vectors which can be modeled to simultaneously add the capabilities of subtask planning, singularity avoidance and force optimization. A discussion of task planning in car interior applications is provided, and is followed by a complete control scheme through null space utilization. A simulation study using the control scheme verifies the expected results