A Hybrid Method for the Computation of Robot Manipulator Workspace

摘要

Exact computation of the shape and volume of robot manipulator workspace is very important for its analysis and optimum design. In the paper, a hybrid computational method which based on numerical and analytical algorithms is applied to calculate the volume and to construct the three-dimensional (3D) robot workspace. Firstly, Monte Carlo method is used to generate a 3D robot workspace which composed of a number of points, according to the kinematics mapping from the joints space to the workspace. Then the two-dimensional (2D) boundary curves of each layer of the workspace are obtained by classifying these points into a series of slices. The boundary surfaces are generated by 3D reconstruction method based on the slices curves. Finally, the numerical integration is adopted to calculate the volume of the workspace. The method presented in the paper is novel to analyze and synthesize the workspace of robot's manipulator, and it is readily available in engineering practice.