Development and performance evaluation of a bricklaying gantry-based parallel robot manipulator

Gantry robots are still used in wide application areas, especially pick and place applications. However, there is a gap in the utility of these robots in the building sector, particularly for the pick-and-place application of building blocks from and to a predefined location. The Gantry-based robot is considered a parallel manipulator because, unlike serial manipulators, the load is divided among its multiple links/legs or arms; this is just so because it is made up of more than one link. Hence, this research presents a study in the field of linear and nonlinear model fit system identification on the aforementioned robot through an attempt to provide a better design to take care of the limitations of parallel manipulators, small workspace problems and robot mobility problems. In this study, Arduino Mega was used for the control system. Other materials included bipolar nema17 stepper motors, MG996R servo motor, A4988 driver, sprocket and chain, belt, pulley and buggy wheels, while SolidWorks was used for the system’s design and simulation. Aluminium (Al alloy 6061) was used for the robot construction due to its excellent properties and suitability. Actuators and parts were analyzed and modelled to gain knowledge of the kinematic behaviour, and the analyses established the linear and nonlinear identification of model fitness. This study used a compact model fit system and a two-method validation identification procedure. The results show that the system model can be successfully identified and validated from the measured data and provide a near-accurate estimate between hypothetical and measured data. Two experimental validations gave 94% using the first setup and 97% using the second setup. This provides a 0.8% progress increment from previous studies

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