Mechatronic Design and Kinematic Analysis of 8 DOF Serial Robot Manipulator to Perform Electrostatic Spray Painting Process on Electrical Panels

Abstract

During the 2021 pandemic, the integration of robotics has increased in industries around the world. However, this has occurred on a very small scale in Peru, to date it is estimated that there are fewer than 100 industrial robots. Thus, there are some strategies to automate in a less expensive way various processes that deal with predictable physical activities in order to reduce production costs and promote robotics in the country. For this reason, an innovative research has been conducted in 2022, under the supervision of the Robotics Division of the Professional School of Mechatronics Engineering in Universidad Ricardo Palma, resulting in this proposed project, which is a manipulator robot design with 8 degrees of freedom for electrostatic painting. In addition, the robotic system has a linear track of 1.0 m and a spray effector with 1 axis included that allows connecting hoses and bypassing different geometries; as a result, it minimizes energy and paint consumption. This study presents a conceptual design of mechatronics, where SolidWorks 2020 was used for 3D CAD development, MATLAB for the simulation of kinematic analysis through trajectory tracking applying nonlinear control based on Lyapunov, and CoppeliaSim for the simulation of operability, besides ISO standards were mentioned. The "MARS-ROBOT"is pretended to be applied in companies in Lima that work with electrical panels. In conclusion, favorable results were achieved; consequently, the next step of this project is to start the detailed engineering design, development and testing of the mechanisms in the prototype.