A SEMIFLEXIBLE KINEMATIC MODEL FOR SERIAL MANIPULATORS

Structural and control flexibilities affect the absolute precision of serial manipulators. A semi-flexible kinematic model is developed, to improve the absolute static precision. It expands the solid body model by incorporating a spring effect for each joint and a beam effect for each link. Simulation results confirm the adequacy of the model. The dependencies existing between the articulate posture of the manipulato r, the effects of the external efforts and the gravitational load on t he global structure are properly described. The identifiability of the added parameters is explored on a RR planar robot. It requires effort s and pose errors to be known in the tool frame only.