Temperature-Induced Deformation in a Mechanical System

摘要

Eliminating the warm-up cycle times needed when an industrial robot is not operated in a thermally stable condition is desirable. A benchmark investigation of the temperature-induced deformation of a driven single aluminum (6061-T6) link is presented. A thermal imaging camera records the time-dependent temperature history of the link. Two experimental cases are reported. The first involves stationary heating of the link. An analytical approach to estimating the distortion of the link allows comparison of the temperature-induced deformation to the recorded drift. In the second case, motion is introduced and the recorded drift is compared to the temperature-induced deformation predicted by a transient finite element analysis (FEA). Incorporating a simple compensation algorithm in the robot controller is presented as a step towards reduction of warm-up cycle times.