Martin Raak, robolink product manager, reports on current product developments here.
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robolink – Multiple-axis joint for robots
Current status of the product development
18.11.2011
Function test in fine vacuum (TU Munich)After having successfully passed tests in rough vacuum on 20/10, now there is also a result for the applicability in fine vacuum.
Certificate and test result as PDF document.
14.11.2011
The 2nd award-winning designAfter the single joint won an award in 2010, the compact robolink drive unit also received the renowned iF Design Award.
2.11.2011
Articulated arm with igus® drive unit
Politecnico di Torino uses a robolink 4-axis arm with drive unit and angle sensors and executes movements with "voice control".
21.10.2011
Trade fair novelty Motek 2011: 5-axis robot arm with drive unit NEMA23At the Motek'11 in Stuttgart, a rotary joint was presented, which extends the operating range of the existing double-jointed arm. The new rotary joint can turn +/-90° and is intended as first axis in an articulated arm.
The arm is equipped with a single-piece pneumatic gripper made of PA2200 as a prototype. The entire moving 6-axis arm weighs significantly less than 1 kilo, and can handle about 0.5 kg.
Recommended price of 5-axis arm (without grippers, sensors) = € 1,700
Price for a complete drive unit based on step motor (NEMA23) with 5-axis articulated arm: € 5,934
5-axis robot arm with drive unit
In addition, other impressions from our fair stand with the following systems:
- Underwater application with camera and compressed air ("Sewer inspection")
- Articulated arm with coolant hose and hand control ("Assistance in a harsh environment")
- 5 waving arms with moving robot hands ("Animatronics")
- 6-axis system with gripper
- Underwater application with camera and compressed air ("Sewer inspection")
- Articulated arm with coolant hose and hand control ("Assistance in a harsh environment")
- 5 waving arms with moving robot hands ("Animatronics")
- 6-axis system with gripper
20.10.2011
robolink passes function test in rough vacuum (TU Munich)Technical University of Munich, Department of Aerospace Engineering - LRT - tests the joint in rough vacuum and certifies full functionality.
Experimental conditions according to the attached certificate, test set-up documented in the film.
23.09.2011
robolink double articulated arm - speed testThe high speeds of the robolink joint are tested with this testing system. The four degrees of freedom of the double joint are accelerated to an angular velocity of 150°/s. The average speed of the mounted weight (560 g) is thereby 1.05 m/s.
19.09.2011
New trade fair site - Application in coolants/lubricantsThe application of robolink in machine tools and the influence of coolants/lubricants is demonstrated here.
01.08.2011
Results from the test laboratoryThis cyclic fatigue test has already run more than 2.9 million cycles and shows no damage whatsoever.
28.07.2011
Asymmetric robolink-versionAsymmetric pivot angle arrangement: Displacement of the pivot angle of +/-90° to +130°/-50°
This gives you a completely new area of operations with our robolink multi-axis joints.
All other properties do not change compared to the original version. Both versions can be freely combined as desired.
Get an overview in the following video.
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05.07.2011
Stage of development of sensor technologyThe AS5304A linear encoder chip of the manufacturer Austriamicrosystems is located on the sensor boards.
The magnetic rings have 31 pole pairs (pivot) and 29 pole pairs (rotation), so that 4960 (pivot) and 4640 (rotation) signals respectively are issued per rotation. This corresponds to an angular accuracy of approx 0.07°. In addition, our magnetic rings are provided with an extended south pole for the absolute zero position (hall sensor). The two sensor boards are wired as follows:
| black | GND |
| red | + 5V |
| blue | Encoder Channel A |
| yellow | Encoder Channel B |
| green | Encoder Index |
| white | Hall Sensor (zero position) |
The used hall sensor made by Honeywell is a solid state sensor with the type designation SS443A, the collector resistance is already placed on the boards.
Hall sensor manufacturer's site
New version of the sensors: Two six-core cables have been swapped for one 12-core cable in the new sensors. This reduced the cable diameter from 2 x 3.1 mm to 1 x 4.0 mm. In addition, the pivot and rotary movement are better differentiated by the extended color coding of the individual wires.
An overview of the sensor cable configuration is given below.
Sensor cable configuration
| pivoting motion | |
| red | + 5V |
| black | GND |
| white | Hall sensor |
| green | Encoder Index |
| blue | Encoder Channel A |
| yellow | Encoder Channel B |
| rotation | |
| white/brown | + 5V |
| Brown | GND |
| Gray | Hall sensor |
| white/green | Encoder Index |
| violet | Encoder Channel A |
| pink | Encoder Channel B |
Readout unit with display of the rotating and pivoting motion.
Sensorchips for
1
Rotating and
2pivoting motion
Magnetic rings for
1
Rotating and
2pivoting motion
19.05.2011
igus® Bowden cableA Bowden cable is a moving machine element to transmit a mechanical movement or a pulling force through a combination of a wire and a casing sturdy in the running direction ("draw wire" according to DIN 71986).
The Bowden cable was named after its inventor Ernest Monnington Bowden (1860-1904).
An optimized friction pair between the drive wire and the outer slide segments is achieved by appropriate materials. A support or guiding element is not necessary, because the system is self-centered in the draw wires by tensile forces. All materials, outer slide segments and wires are made of plastic. The individual outer slide segments are made of PA2200 plastic. All the individual parts are similar, they are assembled in the pre-assembly by simple clipping. The components of the outer slide have a spherical bearing face for:
Centering of the segments among each other
Transfer of pressure forces in the Bowden
3-dimensional movement potential of the segments
The draw wire is a Dyneema rope with a nominal tensile strength of 3800N.
04.04.2011
Available now, produced by laser-sintering processWith the new product configurator, you can now request for a customized system quickly and easily.
robolink configurator
Configure individually from the robot joint kit and inquire or order directly online.
04.04.2011
News 2011robolink News 2011
robolink news and line extentions, more joints, connecting pipes and much more…
1.12.2010
Awarded designRobolink has been awarded by the "iF Forum Design GmbH" in the category "industrial design". The iF awards are given particularly to innovative and visually appealing products. As one of the oldest competitions, the iF award is an internationally recognized design award.
01.06.2010
angular sensor Due to the integrated angular sensors, an arm can also be used directly as "teach-in" arm. Read-out angle information can be saved and called up or even directly transformed into movements (see film). Currently the sensor technology is advanced for series production.
Development partner EvoLogics GmbH is a specialist for bionic inventions (the Fin Ray Effect®, among others). The ideas for the actuation of the joints through "sinews" and the entailing decoupling of the moving masses of the drive technology (bionic model: the foot of a crane. Muscles in the bird's body move the toes of the animal via sinews, the leg is extremely long, thin and therefore light).
Evologics plant: the torso. Each arm has 7 degrees of freedom, 4 of them in the respective 2 robolink joints. Each arm is driven by 7 DC motors; they are stationary in the "breast area".
Due to the decoupling of the drives from the moving arms, each arm only weighs a little over 1 kg. Load capacity per arm is also 1 kg with very high dynamics (see film). Result: a load to dead weight ratio of 1:1 becomes possible!
19/04 - 23/04/2010
Hannover Messe
The robolink highlights at the Hannover Messe 2010 - round tour through the stand and presentation of novelties.
Dipl.-Ing. Martin Raak (robolink Product Development) talking to Leif Kniese (EvoLogics GmbH)
23.03.2010
Increase in the transmitted torque (rotation) from 5 (generation 1) to 7 Nm (generation 2) in continuous operation. (Damage in the one-off fracture test at > 24 Nm)
GFRP and CFRP rods now available in profiled version. Maximum length of 1 m. See price list. Weight CFK: 170 g/m, GFK: 200 g/m, Aluminum 270 g/m
01.02.2010
Development status
Our beta tester special offer has been running since the end of December. So far approx. 30 customers have been sent samples and approx. 20 customer-specific tests are running.
Read more
Illustration of 2 drive options (manual / pneumatic)
14.12.2009
Current status of the product development
The revised, new version of the articulated robot joint is now available as a prototype. The following product improvements have been achieved:
Read more
The articulated joint has the basic dimensions shown below:
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28.09.2009
First articulated joint by the end of this year
We originally wanted to manufacture injection molded tools in connection with the HMI in order to produce the product as shown.
Read more
Comprehensive information and product description
Current application examples
Multiple-axis joint for robots - Find out more about the use of the first robolink prototypes.
Your contact
Martin Raak +49 (0) 22 03-96 49 409 Your requirements?
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