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US 4,547,119 AGranted
Robotic manipulator arm
AssigneeUnited States Robots, Inc.
InventorsPeter E. Chance, Mitchell Weiss
Life of this patent
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AssigneeUnited States Robots, Inc.
InventorsPeter E. Chance, Mitchell Weiss
Estimating the term…
A robotic system including a manipulator arm for moving a device to a predetermined point within a working volume under control of microprocessor based control unit. The manipulator arm includes various sections and joints defining a base, a shoulder, an arm and a wrist. The wrist is jointed to pivot about a pitch axis and a roll axis. The manipulator is arranged to pivot the arm about the base axis and shoulder axis, which axes intersect at a common point. The arm includes a section which is extendable through the use of telescoping links. The wrist is mounted on the end of the telescoping links, with the pitch and roll axes intersecting at a second point. The second point lies along the extension axis of the arm links and is spaced from the shoulder-base axis intersection point. The links forming the telescoping section are arranged to move in unison with each other. A motor and associated harmonic drives are provided to effect the motion at the joints.
In a robotic system a manipulator for moving a device to a predetermined point within a working volume under control of microprocessor based control means comprising base joint means including a rotatable section, a first section extending from said rotatable section and being fixed against rotation relative thereto, shoulder joint means, a second section extending along an extension axis from said shoulder joint means and wrist joint means mounted adjacent an end of said second section for supporting said device thereon, said wrist joint means comprising pitch joint means and roll joint means, said rotatable section of said base joint means being arranged to pivot said first section through a first predetermined arc about a first axis, said shoulder joint means being arranged to pivot said second section through a second predetermined arc about a second axis, said second axis intersecting said first axis perpendicularly at a first point at all positions of said device within said working volume, said pitch joint means being arranged to pivot said device through a third predetermined arc about a third axis, said roll joint means being arranged to pivot said device through a fourth predetermined arc about a fourth axis, said fourth axis intersecting said third axis perpendicularly at a second point, said third axis and said second axis being disposed parallel to each other, said first and second points lying along said extension axis.
In a robotic system a manipulator arm for moving a device to a position in space comprising first joint means, an arm section mounted on said first joint means for rotation through a predetermined arc about a first axis and second joint means mounted on said arm section at a spaced location from said first joint means, said second joint means being arranged to support said device thereon, said arm section comprising first, second and third link means telescopically interconnected, whereupon said second joint means can be positioned at various predetermined distances from said first joint means, said first link means being secured to said first joint means, said second link means being arranged to move into and out of said first link means and said third link means being arranged to move into and out of said second link means, said arm section incIuding screw means and associated rope means for moving said second and third link means in unison, said screw means comprising an elongated screw secured to said first link means and cooperating nut means secured to said link means, said nut means being arranged to travel along said screw means to move said second link means with respect to said first link means, said rope means comprising at least one extension rope secured between said first link means and said third link means, one retraction rope secured between said first link means and said second link means, said second link means including first pull means arranged to be pulled by said extension rope and second pull means arranged to be pulled by said retraction rope.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.