The actuation efficiency, a measure of acceleration capability for nonredundant robotic manipulators: Research Articles

This article presents a performance measure, the actuation efficiency, which describes the imbalance between the end-effector accelerations achievable in different directions of nonredundant robotic manipulators. A key feature of the proposed measure is that in its development the differences in units between translational and rotational accelerations are treated in a physically meaningful manner. The measure also indicates oversized actuators, since this contributes to the imbalance in achievable accelerations. The development of this measure is based on the formulation of the dynamic capability equations. The shape of the dynamic capability hypersurface, which is defined by the dynamic capability equations, is a weak indicator of the level of imbalance in achievable end-effector accelerations. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.