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Summarize the three major servo machines and their installed sensors

2025-04-03

What factors determine the flexibility of industrial robots? As we all know, the most important factor is the number of axes. The number of robot axes determines its degree of freedom. The higher the degree of freedom, the closer the robot is to the motion functions of the human hand, and the better the versatility; but the more degrees of freedom and the more complex the structure, the higher the overall requirements for the robot. A contradiction in robot design. This 7-axis flexible multi-joint robot can be said to be the first 7-DOF collaborative robot in China, with functions such as rapid configuration, traction teaching, visual guidance, and collision detection. If you are working in a small space and require repeated twists and turns of the robotic arm, this seven-axis robot will be a good choice.

Collaborative robots have only begun to gain widespread attention in recent years, but in fact the concept of collaborative robots was first proposed in the 1990s. As a new type of robot that has attracted much attention, collaborative robots have many advantages. In summary, there are four main ones: safety, low cost, flexibility, and easy-to-use methods.

It is predicted that collaborative robots will increase tenfold from 2015 to 2020, and their market value will rise from 95 million U.S. dollars in 2014 to 1 billion U.S. dollars, while lightweight robots will be popular within two years, with prices falling to 15,000 to 20,000. US dollars. Analyst company TechNavio predicts that by 2019, the compound annual growth rate of the high value of global collaborative robots will be 50.88%.

1. Three representatives-Japanese, European and domestic

Yaskawa: Human-machine collaborative robot MOTOMAN-HC10

These two problems generally exist in the method of human-machine cooperation safety setting in the market: one is to protect personal safety, which requires a safety grating, which increases the investment in equipment and costs; the other is the complexity of the operation, and unskilled personnel cannot control the robot.

To this end, Yaskawa Electric has launched the MOTOMAN-HC10 with the characteristics of "use immediately after setting" and "safe and convenient". All axes are equipped with force sensors, which will automatically stop working as soon as they touch the human body. The outer arm of the machine is wrapped with a blue soft material used to absorb collisions, which can completely realize the HC10 and the human work in the same space, without the need for safety barriers, saving costs.

Universal Robots: The world's first, UR5 robot

When it comes to representatives of the European department, Universal Robots is doing its part. UR5 can be said to be the first collaborative robot in the world, and it has been available since 2009. Human instructions can be understood only through sounds, gestures, and graphics; human-machine collaboration can be safely produced without obstructions, with super human perception performance; modular plugs and production parts, an integrated robot system that can be deployed in three days.

Xinsong: "Tai Chi" 7-joint robot

This 7-axis flexible multi-joint robot can be said to be the first 7-DOF collaborative robot in China, with functions such as rapid configuration, traction teaching, visual guidance, and collision detection. If you are working in a small space and require repeated twists and turns of the robotic arm, this seven-axis robot will be a good choice.

2. Ultimate Profound meaning-product definition of collaborative robots

Flexibility

Compared with industrial robots on traditional large-scale production lines, collaborative robots need to cooperate with humans, and their structure size should be lighter, more flexible, and have more space for manipulation.

Ease of use

Collaborative robots emphasize ease of use. For example, they can be followed by sensory devices through gestures, lowering the barrier to use. Frontline workers may only need a few hours to operate, eliminating the need for complex programming and configuration of traditional industrial robots.

Safety

Collaborative robots are mainly used for human-machine collaboration, working with humans, must ensure safety, and cannot harm humans due to accidents. This has high requirements for the perception and control of collaborative robots.

Low cost

Collaborative robots are oriented to small and medium-sized enterprises, and the lowest possible cost is very important, but often the low cost and performance will also be reduced. It is relatively difficult to control the cost while improving the performance.

3. Indispensable-servo and sensor　

For a collaborative robot to possess the above four characteristics, it must have the ability to sense, control and limit torque. By sensing the smallest external torque changes and reacting to avoid collisions, the process of human-machine collaboration is easier and safer.

(1) Ultra-small, powerful servo driver

The physical size of a driver is small enough to be directly mounted on the robot joint, which ensures that the robot is small in size and compact in structure. The servo driver is directly installed on the robot joint. Placing the driver close enough to the encoder feedback can save cables, reduce interference effects, obtain relatively low EMI and RFI indicators, and greatly improve system stability. Another feature that makes the drive easier to integrate into the joint is the inherent sturdiness of the drive, which can withstand the extremely high mechanical acceleration and deceleration in the joint.

(2) Double closed loop control algorithm

The double closed-loop control algorithm can improve the performance of the servo motor to the optimal state. Each axis in the system adopts a double closed-loop control algorithm to improve the positioning accuracy of the joint end position of the rear end of the reducer. Incremental encoders and Hall components are placed at the front of the gearbox as speed loop feedback, and 19-bit high-resolution absolute encoders are used as load end position feedback.

(3) Motion redundancy

Kinematic redundancy is useful for operating several robots in a specific space, because motion interference is easy to handle. Six degrees of freedom is the minimum number of degrees of freedom with the ability to complete spatial positioning. Robots with more than six axes are collectively called redundant degrees of freedom robots. Compared with the traditional 6-joint robot, the 7-joint robot can extend the manipulator arm at multiple angles to approach a specific original. Redundant degrees of freedom robots have more advantages in avoiding obstacles, overcoming singularities, flexibility and fault tolerance. Therefore, industrial robots with redundant degrees of freedom will have more applications in complex working environments.

(4) Torque sensor

In a human-machine collaboration environment, these robots are arranged to complete high-speed, high-precision tasks. Using cameras, force sensors and other sensing elements, the robot can sense the presence of people and make corresponding actions to avoid harm to people. In some cases, the torque sensor is placed behind the motor gearbox to directly detect any rapid increase in external torque; in other cases, the robot needs to output a certain torque to lift the load and move the load from one position to another. . When the robot recognizes an abnormal torque increase during movement, such as a collision, it will automatically stop.

(5) Safety sensor

If you want industrial robots to cooperate with humans, you must first find a way to ensure the safety of workers. These sensors come in various forms, from cameras to lasers, etc., with only one purpose, which is to tell the situation around the robot. The simplest example is the laser safety sensor on the elevator door. When the laser detects an obstacle, the door will immediately stop closing and retract to avoid collision. The same goes for most safety sensors in the robotics industry.

(6) Parts detection sensor

In the part picking application, (assuming there is no vision system), you cannot know whether the robot gripper has picked the part correctly. The part inspection application can provide you with feedback on the position of the gripper. For example, if the gripper misses a part, the system will detect the error and repeat the operation to ensure that the part is gripped correctly.

Without these sensors, industrial robots are just a pile of scrap iron.

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