Articulated Robots

Articulated robots are robots containing rotary joints. It uses all three revolute joints to access the workspace. An important concept used to decide the type of robotic application is the work envelope. The work envelope is the range of movement for a robot, determined by the maximum manipulator movement in forward, backward, upward, and downward directions.

An articulated robot makes its movement using the rotary joints. The joints can range from two-axis configurations to ten or more axes, performing varieties of complicated tasks. The articulated robots are the most common types of robots used in industries, six degrees of freedom being the most common. They can utilize the maximum volume of their work envelope, making the most efficient robots from all the available industrial robots.

Six degrees of articulated robots make rotary and interpolated movement to any point within the working envelope (from roboticautomationsystems):

Axis 1: Rotates robot (at the base of robot)

Axis 2: Forward and backward extension of robot lower arm

Axis 3: Raises and lower robot upper arm

Axis 4: Rotates robot upper arm

Axis 5: Raises and lowers the wrist of robot’s arm

Axis 6: Rotates the wrist of robot’s arm

Movement is driven by servo motors. A control system controls the power supplied to each motor and precise movement of the robot.