DYNAMIC TRACKING LINE - FEASIBLE TRACKING REGION OF A ROBOT IN CONVEYOR SYSTEMS

The concept of dynamic tracking line is proposed as the feasible track ing region for a robot in a robot-conveyor system, which takes the con veyor speed into consideration, This paper presents an effective metho d to find the dynamic tracking line in a robotic workcell. The maximum permissible line-speed which is a quantitative measure of the robot c apability for conveyor tracking, is defined on the basis of the relati on between the end-effector speed and the bounds on the joint velociti es, accelerations, and torques, This measure is derived in an analytic form using the parameterized dynamics and kinematics of the manipulat or, and some of its properties are established mathematically. The pro blem of finding the dynamic tracking line is then formulated as a root -solving problem for a single-variable equation, and solved by the use of a simple numerical technique. Finally, numerical examples are pres ented to demonstrate the methodology and its applications in workspace specification.