ARTICULATED GEOMETRY – 21008

Robot arms can move in various different ways. Some can attain only certain discrete, or definite, positions, and cannot stop at any intermediate position. Others can move in smooth, sweeping motions, and are capable of reaching to any point within a certain region.

One method of robot arm movement is called articulated geometry.The word “articulated” means “broken into sections by joints.” This type of robot arm resembles the arm of a human. The versatility is defined in terms of the number of degrees of freedom. There might, for example, be base rotation, elevation, and reach. There are several different articulated geometries for any given number of degrees of freedom. The illustration shows one scheme for a robot arm that uses articulated geometry.