Sensorless Parts Feeding with a One Joint Robot
S. Akella, W. H. Huang, K. M. Lynch, and M. T. Mason
Abstract
A rigid object in the plane has three degrees of motion freedom, but it does not follow that a planar manipulator must have three independently actuated and controlled joints. As previous work has demonstrated, there are a variety of methods to perform manipulation tasks using fewer actuators than motion freedoms. The method explored in this paper is to use a single joint robot to push an object on a constant speed conveyor belt. This paper summarizes the approach, previously described in [Akella et al. 95], and extends the approach to include the problem of orienting polygonal objects without a sensor.