Study on the Effect of Link Flexibility on Tip Position of a Single Link Robotic Arm

In comparison to traditional industrial rigid link robots, flexible robots are frequently employed in space applications owing to their rapid reaction, reduced energy consumption, smaller total mass, and high-speed operation. These robots are inherently flexible, so that the kinematics of flexible robots cannot be solved with rigid body assumptions. The flexibility in links and joints affects end-point positioning accuracy of the robot. It is important to model the link kinematics with precision which in turn simplifies modelling of dynamics of flexible robots. The major goal of this article is to see how link extensibility affects the tip location of a single link robotic arm for a certain motion. The joint is assumed to be rigid and only link flexibility is considered. The kinematics of flexible link problem is evaluated by Assumed Modes Method (AMM) using MATLAB Programming. To evaluate the effect of link flexibility (with and without payload) of robotic arm, the normalized tip deviation is found for flexible link with respect to a rigid link. Finally, the limiting inertia for payload mass is found if the allowable tip deviation is 5%.