Development and fabrication of a cost effective 2-DOF serial two-link flexible manipulator

M.Tech. (Mechanical Engineering)Abstract: Due to the weight, rigid robots/manipulators consume a large amount of space and risk highly occurred. Rigid manipulators are heavier, and they are costly to operate. Therefore, redesigning and modifying the existing rigid robots led to the introduction of flexible robots /flexible link manipulators. Flexible manipulators are easy to operate with the increase in speed operation, they consume less power, and they are lighter in weight. The need for developing a cheaper Flexible two-link manipulator experimental rig, for academic and research purposes was risng and became the focuss of this investigation. This research introduces the development, design model and experimental system of a 2-DOF (Two Degrees of Freedom) flexible manipulator, and it aimed at selecting a lightweight material, actuators, and drivers, and developing fully a 2-DOF Flexible manipulator. The methodology of this research analysed the selection of material based on cost, lightweight and flexibility, and the online environment was used to compare types of materials. It furthermore assesses the appropriate motors as actuators, with the use of online motor sizing. Software for modelling Engineering designs (Inventor software) was used to model the system. Aluminium was selected as a suitable material for the model, it was found to be lightweight and flexible.Machining of parts was done through plasma cut and CNC (Computerized Numerical Control) machine. And construction, operating/components to drive the flexible manipulator assessed was stepper motor which was found to be reliable based on its advantages, and it was found that Arduino was easy to use as programmer board to drive the stepper motors. A fully constructed 2-DOF flexible manipulator was accomplished and the motion restricted in the horizontal plane was investigated. With the aid of video recording on top of the model, the PASCO software was used to analyse the motion of the model tracking it at the tip. It was observed that the tip of the 2-DOF flexible manipulator is subject to vibration when it has moved and stopped, showing that the equipment is suitable for vibration analysis. Results were produced in a form of graphs, comprising a velocity-time graph, angular displacement, and a position-time graph. It resulted in the selection of aluminium alloy that has flexible properties and less dense results. And stepper motor was found to be easy to operate and reliable. It was concluded that the availability of the experimental 2-DOF flexible manipulator opens the gates to further the dynamic analysis and control of the vibrations that were observed. Finite element analysis was conducted and it was found that the design was..