Control of Modular Robot Manipulators

Today’s robot manipulators are generally called integrated manipulators. Not only their mechanical structure, sensors, and actuators, but also their electronics and computing systems are specifically designed, fabricated, and integrated before being delivered to users. While being operationally effective and precise in well-structured assembly lines, these manipulators, on the other hand, possess weak adaptability, flexibility, and versatility against task variations in unstructured environments. The fact of having a fixed structure limits the capability of these integrated manipulators to perform a variety of tasks that require different robot structures with different degrees of freedom of motion. Besides being unable to have their structures changed on-site applications, the integrated robot manipulators are generally stand-along devices with separate control cabinets. This characteristic makes them difficult to be incorporated into mobile platforms.