Inverse kinematics of a reclaimer: redundancy and solution

The huge reclaimers in the raw ore yard are used to dig ore and transfer it to the blast furnaces. When the buckets of the reclaimer land on the stockpile, a method for solving inverse kinematics of a reclaimer is presented in this paper. To detect the shape of the pile, a 3-dimensional range finder which consists of a 2-dimensional scanner and an additional joint is developed with laser radar concepts. The kinematic configuration of the reclaimer is different from that of the commercial robot. The reclaimer has a redundancy due to the rotating buckets at the end of the its boom. A constraint equation for solving the inverse kinematics of the reclaimer is also derived by the geometrical relationship. A numerical method is used to obtain the joint angle of the reclaimer