Sensors and Actuators
1
Sensors
Sensors are used to supply information to the
robotic control system
Sensors
–Provide information about the status of links
and joints
–Provide information about the environment
2
Status sensors
Is primary use of sensors
•They are basic elements in the internal closed
loop control of the robot
•Sense
–Position
–Velocity
–Acceleration
–Torque/force in joints
•Degree of resolution and accuracy of status
sensors determine the accuracy of the robot 3
Environmental sensors
Provide information about the objects in the
surrounding
–Detect presence of work piece
–Determine position and orientation of work
piece
–Provide information about environmental
variables such as temperature, humidity
Information is used by the control computer
to adapt trajectory
4
Types of status sensors
The most common types of status sensors are
–Potentiometers
–Tachometers
–Optical encoders
–Micro switch
5
Environmental sensor types
Contact type sensors
–Pressure
–Force
–Slip
–Torque
Non contact type sensors
–Vision
–Optical, acoustic
–IR and proximity switches
–temperature and chemical sensors 6
Position sensors
Potentiometers
–Are variable resistance devices
–Change in length(linear or angular) varies the
effective length of the conductor and hence resistance
of the device
optical encoder
–Converts motion into a sequence of digital pulses
–By counting a single bit or decoding a set of bits, the
pulses can be converted to absolute or relative
position
7
Cont.…
Optical encoder
8
Velocity sensors
Tacho generators
–Produce a voltage proportional to speed
of rotation of a shaft
–Used with dc motors to sense speed of
rotation
–Have very big voltage outputs
–Used for feedback control of DC motors
9
Acceleration sensors
•Accelerometer
– measure acceleration
–Use force sensor and mass and then apply
Newton’s second law
–Not common in robotics because of noise
effect
10
Proximity sensors
Are very common and useful in robotics and
automated machinery applications
–Inductive proximity sensors
Induce magnetic field or eddy current into the
target
Sense the presence of ferric magnetic material
–Capacitive proximity sensors
Sense presence of any material
–Photo electric proximity sensors
Used in grippers to sense obstacles
11
Cameras
Are used to determine the position,
orientation, identity and condition of objects in
the work cell
Robotic vision – targeted at manipulation and
interpretation of image and use of this
information for control
Two aspects
–Provision for visual input
–Processing of the information
12
Robotic vision
Applications
–Find the presence of an object in a conveyer belt of a bin
–Object location – obstacle or an object to be manipulated is
correctly identified in its location and orientation
–Pick and place motion- guided manipulation to pick and place
objects, gripper orientation
–Visual inspection – used for automated quality control,
extracting specific quantitative measurement of desired
parameters from an image
–Visual guidance – is most advanced, assembly operation ,
one part is fixed and the other is moved or guided by a robot
using vision
13
Actuators
Actuators in robotic systems are used to
move the joints
Joint actuators can be
–Hydraulic actuators
–Pneumatic actuators
–Electric actuators
14
Hydraulic actuators
Are actuators which use oil pressure
Can produce large force/torque to drive
manipulator joints without used of reduction
gearing – large power-to-weight ration
Are easily applied for position control
Their disadvantage is
–Are cumbersome and messy
–Require a great deal of equipment such as
pumps, actuators, hoses, and servo valves
15
Hydraulic actuators
linear movement
big forces without gears
actuators are simple
in mobile machines
Bad efficiency
motor, pump, actuator combination is lighter
than motor, generator, battery, motor &
gear combination
16
Hydraulic actuators
.
17
Hydraulic actuators
Disadvantage
–friction of seals, leakage, viscosity of oil, and
complex temperature dependent of the oil –
not suitable for accurate position/torque
control
–Not clean
18
Pneumatic actuators
Are actuators which are based on pressure
Air or other fluid is used
Are relatively cleaner
Share all disadvantage of hydraulic
actuators
19
Electric actuators
Most popular choice
Easy to control and are clean
Used for small to medium sized robotic
manipulators
Need reduction gears of high ratio
–Linearizes the dynamics
–Increases the friction, elasticity and backlash
20
Electric actuators
Types of electric motors used in robotic
manipulators
•DC motor
•Stepper motor
•Other devices such as solenoid
21
DC motor
simple, cheap
easy to control
1W - 1kW
can be overloaded
brushes wear
limited overloading on high
speeds
22
