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Applied Robot Design

Bearings

  • Constrains motion
  • Reduce friction
  • Consists of inner race, outer race and balls
  • Problem: Inner race can be twisted; Solution: Use two bearings
  • Problem: the shaft can move freely; Solution: Use shaft collar; If the shaft collar touches the outer race use spacers/ shim/ washer/ inner race spacer/ ball bearing shim
  • Ball bearings have less friction, plain bearings are cheeper
  • Can have flanches to keep it in place
  • Use spring to preload the bearing
  • Otherwise add a lip into the material
  • Retaining ring just as good as flanched bearings but cheaper
  • MDF: thick, repeatability, remains very flat 1/4'' in opposite to plywood
  • slip fit: 2-4 thousands difference in diameter e.g inner race is 0.250'' then shafts needs to be 0.2500'' - 0.002'' (0,0508mm)
  • Press fit: doesnt come out expect with a lot of force
  • Slip fit: can move freely
  • Interferance: In between press and slip
  • Do not use a hammer
  • shaft need to have a chamfer
  • If shaft doesnt fit: skrewdriver, 400 grid sandpaper, wear googles, use water to cool

Gears

  • Transmission of motion torque
  • Velocity: theta_dot_2 = d1 / d2 * theta_dot_1
  • Torque: tau_2 = d2 / d1 * tau_1
  • Spear gears have backlash
  • Can bre reduced to two circles, d1 and d2
  • threoretical pitch circle / diameter (PD): point of contact
  • pitch is distance between teeth / distance along a curve not a straight distance
  • Pitch is also called module in metric
  • Always use gears of the same pitch
  • Two types of teeth: Involute, cycloidal
  • Two gears rigidly attached to each other is called compound gear, is used to have more torque
  • Plastic gear is cheap but they break easiely
  • Usually you dont build your compound gear yourself, you use a gear head
  • Idler: changes direction of rotation or span gaps
  • Spear gears: internal and external
  • compound gear: two or more spear gears rigidly coupled
  • Rack and pinion: Rack is a spear gear that is unwrapped, linear motion
  • Rack and pinion spacing = PD/2
  • Two spear gears spacing = (PD1 + PD2) / 2
  • Mate rack and pinion inside fusion 360 with offset plane at top of rack and distance to pinion center = PD / 2 - PH
  • Worm and wormgear;
  • Wormgear extremly compact for high gear reduction; a lot of energy loss because of sliding contact; lowest efficiency gear; not backdrivable means you cant use the output to move the input, another term is self locking; have one tooth
  • backdrivability is good if power is down and you want to move a sushi robot with a knife back
  • Worm are long and skinny and has a helix; left-handed and right-handed
  • E = beta_1 + beta_2; E .. angle between the shaft; beta .. helix angles; typically 45°
  • Example beta_1 = 45°; beta_2 = 45° means you can put the in 90° angle; take a left and right handed: 45° - 45° = 0°; those you can only put planar to each other
  • Helical gear; can be monted in an angle; at high speed helical gears are less noisy; at low speed no difference
  • bevel gear; perpendicular axis; doesnt have to be 1:1; doesnt have to be 90°
  • miter gear; are a subset of bevel gears; special form of bevel; always 1:1 ratio; always 90° to each other
  • hearing bone gear; also called double helical; gets rid of axial force between two helical gears
  • If you need high gear ratio in small space use worm gear; if you don't want the output move the input use worm; If you need offset use worm or helical gear otherwise use bevel gear
  • Gear efficiency: Spear: 98-99; helical: 98-99 if parallel; double helical: 98-99; bevel 98-99; worm 20-98; cross helical: 70-98;
  • Perpendicular, orthogonal, skew, cross helical is same term for helical in 90° configuration

Gear head

  • Spear gearhead; don't make your own buy them; first gear can be plastic to save money
  • Planetary gearhead; planet gear; sun gear (the one in the middle); epicyclic gearing: axis of the gears are moving; extreme power density; much more expensive because more parts and higher tolerances
  • Harmonic gearhead; used in asimo robot
  • Gear Ration N; friction on the input; will be multiplied by N and inertia will be N²; the higher the gear ration the less back driveable
  • delrin good gears; expensive
  • acetal bad gears
  • Mount gear: hub; hub diameter; bore; press-fit; clamp; set-screw (flat and set-screw); keyed;
  • Set-screw: pain in the ass; use thread locker to prevent set-screw from vibrating free; don't use without a flat
  • Clamp: are good; dont need shaft preperation; easy to install; don't vibrate free
  • Keys
  • Press-fit is difficult to get it back off
  • Recommendation: Prefer clamp; maybe set-screw

Screws

  • Apply axial force between two bodies
  • Torx, take higher torque
  • Sizes: M2 M3 M4 M5 M6 M8
  • Strip: 10 8 4 0 0
  • Don't use M1.6 it sucks
  • M2 strips very easy, means makes your hex to a circle
  • M3 is also easy to strip
  • M4 don't strip easiely
  • Socket: hex, torx
  • Head: flat or with angle
  • Partially / fully threaded
  • Outside diameter M2 .. 2 mm; M3 .. 3 mm
  • Pitch M3 x 0.5 mm; M4 x 0.7 mm; M5 x 0.8 mm; M6 x 1mm; M8 x 1.25mm
  • Pitch = Linear distance it takes one thread to make one revolution
  • First 3 - 4 threads of skrew take most of the load
  • Tap Drill Size: M2 .. 1.6 mm; M3 2.5 mmm; M4 .. 3.3mm; M5 .. 4.2mm; M6 .. 5mm
  • Only power tap M4 and bigger; M2, M3 can only be handtaped
  • Clearance holes diameter: M2 .. 2.6; M3 .. 3.6; M4 .. 4.8mm; M5 .. 5.8; M6 .. 7.0
  • Never tap both plates

Dowl Pins

  • Align two bodies
  • Go into dowl holes
  • In aluminum and steel dont use more then two or you overconstrain
  • In soft materials like plastic or plywood using more then two will help
  • For lazer cutted stuff: 3 dowl pins and 3 screws; sometimes also 4 and 4; on Bolt Circle (BC)

Motors

  • DC Motors brushed; most common motors; really fast; use gearhead to reduce speed and increase torque
  • DC Motor brushless; RC planes; super hight torque density; needs tricky special electronics; wicked fast
  • AC Motors; never use AC
  • Steppers; feedforward; ticks as long you don't put too much load onto it; NEMA standard means you can plug and play; position control only
  • Servos: DC brushed motor; with potentiometer and gearhead
  • Ultrasonic; very slow
  • V = Kv * omega (or theta dot)
  • V = Back EMF or voltage you apply
  • Kv .. konstant
  • omega = rads / s
  • Mounting Motor: A) Clamp; grab the motor on the outer casing; dont do it on plastic motors; don't overtight it
  • B) fix it on the Bold pattern if there is some
  • C) If the motor shaft is off center dont use A)
  • Can have backshaft for encoder; expensive motors usually have one
  • Radial force on shaft; axial force on shaft; see datasheet; means: dont yank too hard; dont push too hard;
  • Spear gears can be much stronger in terms of radial force then planetary gears
  • To get rid of backlash use anti backlash / preloaded gear: Problem increased friction; cost; complexity;

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