Robotic arm assembly equipped with elbow hard stop
AssigneeFabworx Solutions, Inc.
InventorsDaniel Alaniz, Thomas Walton, Michael Dailey
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A robot is provided which includes a hub; an elbow joint; a wrist assembly; a first upper arm which is rotatably attached on a first end thereof to the hub, and which is attached on a second end thereof to the elbow joint; a first lower arm which is attached on a first end thereof to the elbow joint, and which is attached on a second end thereof to the wrist assembly; and a hard stop which extends over the elbow joint and a portion of the lower arm. The hard stop prevents the wrist assembly from contacting the hub when the motor of the robot is not engaged.
Claims16
A robot, comprising:
- a hub;
- a first elbow joint;
- a wrist assembly;
- a first upper arm rotatably attached on a first end thereof to said hub, and attached on a second end thereof to said first elbow joint;
- a first lower arm attached on a first end thereof to said first elbow joint, and attached on a second end thereof to said wrist assembly;
- and
- a first hard stop which extends over said first elbow joint and a portion of said lower arm, wherein said first hard stop has an aperture therein through which said lower arm extends;
- wherein said robot is movable between a first configuration in which said wrist assembly is at a minimum distance from said hub, and a second configuration in which said wrist assembly is at a maximum distance from said hub;
- wherein said lower arm rotates towards said upper arm as said robot moves from said second configuration into said first configuration;
- and
- wherein said first hard stop has an exterior surface region which abuts said upper arm when said robot is in said first configuration.
A method for restricting the motion of an elbow joint in a robot, comprising:
- providing a robot equipped with
- (a) a hub,
- (b) a first elbow joint,
- (c) a wrist assembly,
- (d) a first upper arm rotatably attached on a first end thereof to said hub, and attached on a second end thereof to said first elbow joint, and
- (e) a first lower arm attached on a first end thereof to said first elbow joint, and attached on a second end thereof to said wrist assembly,
- wherein said robot is movable between a first configuration in which said wrist assembly is at a minimum distance from said hub, and a second configuration in which said wrist assembly is at a maximum distance from said hub, and wherein said lower arm rotates towards said upper arm as said robot moves from said second configuration into said first configuration;
- and
- applying a first hard stop which extends over said first elbow joint and a portion of said lower arm, wherein said first hard stop has an aperture therein through which said lower arm extends, and wherein said hard stop maintains the upper and lower arms in a spaced apart configuration when the robot is in the first configuration.
The method of claim12, wherein said hard stop is equipped with a plurality of radial apertures, and wherein said hard stop is releasably attached to said elbow joint with a plurality of fasteners which extend through said radial apertures.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.