Programmable air pressure counterbalance system for a manipulator

A programmable fluid pressure counterbalance system for a manipulator comprising:

• an arm assembly for grasping objects;
• storage means for maintaining information representing a measure of the predetermined gravity forces on said arm assembly in the course of executing an assembly program, said stored information representing the counterbalancing force required to compensate for the effects of gravity produced by an object to be grasped as well as the weight of said arm assembly;
• selecting means responsive to said assembly program for selecting said stored counterbalance force information at the appropriate times during the assembly execution;
• a fluid pressure regulator responsive to said selecting means for receiving the selected counterbalance force information;
• and
• a fluid pressure counterbalance cylinder and piston operatively connected to said arm assembly so as to provide forces in opposition to the gravity forces on said arm assembly, said fluid pressure counterbalance cylinder and piston being connected to said fluid pressure regulator to produce the predetermined counterbalancing force which compensates for the gravity forces of both said arm assembly and the grasped object.

A fluid pressure counterbalance system for a X Y Z orthogonal manipulator comprising:

• an arm assembly for grasping objects, said arm assembly including a Z-axis manipulator arm extending up and down in the direction of the gravity axis;
• an arm joint slidably connected to said Z-axis arm such that said joint and said arm move relative to one another along the Z-axis;
• motive means for moving said manipulator arm and said arm joint relative to each other;
• a fluid pressure counterbalance cylinder and piston operatively connected between said Z-axis manipulator arm and said arm joint;
• a fluid pressure regulating means connected to said cylinder and piston to provide a constant pressure against said piston, said fluid pressure regulator means being set to that pressure which provides a constant counterbalancing force to compensate for the gravity forces on said Z-axis manipulator arm and joint.